Trying to survive
by PointlessKnife
Summary: A disease has torn through the world and left a large percent of the human population infected and they now live as zombies. The survivors are minimal, but they all have one goal in common. Try to survive. May change name later on.
1. Chapter 1

There had been very little survivors. The virus had passed through the human population like an electric shock, jolting people with change so sudden that they were infected before they knew what the disease was. 70% of humanity were now zombies, roaming the streats, groaning in the agony of every their move and wailing their eternal pain. The decaying creatures seemed desperate to drag the remaining people into their bloody darkness.

Most of the houses weren't ruined. Some had crashed into them and all had rooms bathed in blood. Lucy Heartfilia stood in a kitchen. She was on balancing on a stool, reaching for the highest shelf and cursing as the stubborn lock rattled teasingly and refused to move. Her patience was rapidly depleting. The metal gave her a nasty cut and fury boiled in the pit of her stomach. With a yell she brought the pipe down on the lock, it clicked in defeat and reluctantly swung open.

She was rewarded by tin cans. She merley shrugged, food was better than nothing bit she still wished she had a better weapon. Carving knives weren't so effective and her whip wasn't the best when she hardly knew how to use it. Still, she knew what to do and how the virus spread, contaminated food and wounds. She wore hoodies and long leggings in a hope that most skin was covered. Lucy knew that tinned food was the best and now she reflected on it, was greatful for the stubborn lock as it was a obvious indicator that the food was untouched and safe.

It was only then that she noticed the scratching at the door, clawed nails scrabbling and peeling the thin paint. Then the putrid smell drifted to her, a sickening stench of flesh and blood. Then the moans of pain quickly turned to wails of excitement and reeked of bloodlust. Snarls of delight quickly called more zombies to the scene, soon they were hammering on the large glass doors behind her. She didn't know what would happen first, the glass shattering into a fountain of diamonds, glinting in the evening light or the door, splintering and showering her with vicous shards of wood. Either would mean a flood of zombies consuming her. There was no way to escape, no weapons that could aid her or anything that would change the end result.

She wanted so badly to go down fighting, the desire burned but Lucy could do nothing to stop the hot tears that leaked out of her eyes at the thought of her fate.

Natsu Dragneel had this burning sensation in his gut, something was wrong and not just this new world wrong, something very bad. His gut had never been wrong before and to abandon someone wasn't him now and would never be him in the future. He heard a shrill cry of hunger and... hesitated. His brother's serious eyes burned into his, the memory was strong ,

"Don't die, I can't lose you, not now."

Mavis' tear filled gaze swam in front of him "Please don't die, we all need you!" Her hand that wasn't being held by his brother resting on her swollen stomach. Then Wendy.

"You won't get hurt out there, will you?" And her crying pleas as she hung onto his clothes as he went to explore the city. The faces of the rest of their group, all counting on him to learn and come back.

"Pssh, I can do both." And he took off running.

The door was begining to groan from the relentless pounding it had been forced to endure in the last endless hours. The harsh metallic tang of blood had numbed her nose, making her defencless and Lucy mourned the loss of one of her senses. There was a small crack in the glass, every pound on the door or on the glass vibrated in her skull, the crimson warning of her fate crashing around in her. She felt she had to say it, at least once.

 _Sorry mum..._ "I am going to die." The hoarse whisper left her throat with a dry sob.

Something dripped to the floor outside, like the sky itself were crying, sheding tears of her sorrow. She saw an indistinct shape fall and dimly wondered what was going to happen. Was she saved?

Then screamed as the world exploded, the fire cackling as it devoured the undead, casting illumination to her saviour, and the large, possibly insane grin covering his face.

"Yo, you okay?" His voice snapped her out of her trance.

"Oh my god, you burned down a house!"

"So?"

"You burned down a house." Her point just wasn't making sense to him.

"Jeez you weirdo, I just saved your life!" Recent events suddenly seemed to process themselves in her brain.

"O-Oh" She gasped, cheeks flushed as her brain woke up.

"You coming, we have a group of survivors, you could easily become one of us."

Too overcome for words she nodded and reached for his outstreched hand.

Just maybe, they had a hope after all.

 **Hi! I know I don't normally do an A/N. Would you guys rather i continued this story or did more oneshots? Thanks**

 **-IndigoWolfie**


	2. Chapter 2

Lucy, for the whole, felt pretty good. This was saying something considering they had spent the last two hours running from zombies. But her companion had made it seem enjoyable, he was always shouting encouragement and when she was tired, grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

They had now taken break in an adandoned house, raided all the food and weapons and had started a fire in the disappointingly plain living room of the house. They had eaten a while ago and while the food had been the same sickening sloppy mess that came from a can, the meal had been the happiest time she'd had in a long while. With her belly comfortably full she turned to the pink haired boy sitting beside her and with a sudden guilty jolt realized...

"I'm so sorry, I don't even know your name and I never introduced myself." She blurted, slowly flushing crimson.

"Don't sweat it. I'm Natsu Dragneel." He said, offering her his hand. She smiled

"Hi, I'm Lucy." And she took his hand. His grin turned cheeky

"Sure, nice to meet you, Luigi!" Her eye twitched. She reached out her hand and...

"OW! Do you always abuse people who make jokes?" He yelled as he clutched his now red cheek.

"I literally just told you my name, you moron. That joke isn't even funny anyways." She groaned.

"Anyways Luce, what are you going to do now? Are you coming with me or nah?" He asked, looking curious.

"L-Luce?" She stuttered, cheeks flooding with pink.

He opened an eye. "Yeah, Luce. It suits you."

"Oh. I think I'd like to come with it true that there are more people with you?" She tried to sound casual but couldn't stop her heartbeat increasing at the thought of more people. True, Lucy had known that somewhere out there more people had survived but she never knew where they were, or even where to start looking. She had hated being alone, she always had to choose for herself, no one to check her judgement or to help her, every mistake she'd made had made her wish for support. And now here was her salvation, looking at her happily.

"That's awesome! We can head there in the morning, you'll love it there Luce." His words seemed to hold a promise. She smiled, such a true, happy smile that radiated light, she was finally saved and was too caught up in her happiness to notice Natsu staring at her as though he had never seen a girl before.

"Well done Gajeel, you got us kicked out of yet another survival guild!" Came the fustrated huff of a small blue haired girl. Her eyes were bright with annoyance, yet glowed with hidden warmth.

"Is there any particular reason you're following me?" He grunted. She glared at him and kicked him in the shin.

"Ow, are you insane woman? What have I even done now?"

"You should know why I follow you around!" she exclaimed, eyes bright with fake fury.

"Whatever shrimp."

"You big lug!"

"Fact remains you are the size of a pixie."

Levy, once again resorted to physical violence. Gajeed moaned in pain then muttered "Why does she do it when she knows I can't hit her back?"

"Because _she_ knows she'll get away with it."

"I never said you had to come with me."

"I said I did, so there." Annoying, stubborn shrimp, Gajeel thought. He did actually know why she followed him around and he hated it because it put her in danger. She had promised Metalicana that she would keep an eye on him. Which made Gajeel hate the old man even more, not only was his shrimp in danger because of the promise, but the old fart had left the day after. Levy never minded though, she had been friends with Gajeel before that and only wanted to help him, especially after he saved her from zombies several times.

"Do we even know where we're going?" She asked. Gajeel could easily see past the fake casualness of the question and see the fear hiding inside instead.

He put a giant hand on her head and was unsuprised to feel her trembling.

"Relax shrimp, we'll get somewhere eventually." Her ruffled her hair and she shocked herself when she took his hand.

He was totally fine with that though, so they walked forwards like that.


	3. Chapter 3

It had to rain, of all things that could happen, it had to rain. Over the thundering downpour they couldn't hear the moans of zombies, the street was slick and essentially a deathtrap. It also meant that they couldn't chat, which for some reason upset Lucy. She didn't know why she missed his reassuring laugh but it did something funny to her heart. Maybe it was over the last week, she had come to like- Lucy decided she really didn't want to know.

Natsu grinned then bellowed over his shoulder.

"C'mon Luce, it's just round this corner." His grin was so large that she couldn't help but smile. She caught up to him where he stood, looking at something around the corner, his face was hidden as his back was facing her. She looked hopefully at the place that would be her new home.

And neraly vomitted. There was blood covering the walls and there was fire, raging and devouring everything. This wasn't what she was expecting. At all. They must have been attacked and destroyed. Especially by the two new looking zombies.

"Jet, Droy?" Natsu whispered, eyes wide with horror. Lucy's heart lurched with sympathy. He had come back to see all he held dear in ruins, she could almost hear his heart snapping.

"Why?" He choked out. "We were- are a family. Just Why?" He screamed the last part. This drew the attention of several of the monsters and they staggered menacingly towards them. Including Jet and Droy.

Natsu stared. "I swear I will destroy every last zombie that roams the earth." he snarled, rage dripping from every letter. Hot tears leaked out his eyes and streamed down his face, before Lucy grabbed his hand and pulled him along, saving him from the blood covered creatures. She looked back at his face and saw amongst the tears there was a large, insane and feral grin covering his face, but she couldn't blame him. After all, they had all seen the graffiti with the strange mark underneath it.

 **Fairy Tail Lives On**

And that meant the world to them.

The cold air seared Wendy's lungs as she gasped for another breath. She had been running for what seemed like hours. They had attacked and as their claws reached their last defences and their master had yelled at them to run. And in a shower of splinters, run she had. She had burst free and ran like she had wings and scrambled up a drain. She had crouched shivering beind a shop sign and then realized something. The boy she thought of as her big brother would never know what happened. She swung herself into the shop and smiled in delight.

Half an hour later the wall was splattered in a message. She then drew the guild mark and ran.

Two days later.

Wendy really hated being alone. She felt so exposed and fragile whenever she did something. She was jumpy and expected a hoard of zombies to come bursting round every corner. She practically leapt six feet in the air when she heard a wail.

Then took of running when she heard the very human laughter. She found a boy about her age crouching over a man with the same colour hair as him, minus the streaks of grey.

"Dad..." The young boy whimpered. "Get up, please!" He begged, tears falling on his father's slack face. The puddle of blood seeped outwards and Wendy knew that the guy was far past the point of no return.

The man with the tattoo leered at the mourning boy.

"Hah! He should have just listened to me. You're next boy!"

"Why? Why, Bora, why did you kill him?" The boy whisper hoarsly, tears now flowing freely.

"He didn't agree to my deal." The adult replied in a silky tone, "all he had to do was give me all of your suplies." he sneered.

Wendy saw red. Her own birth parents had died and Grandeeney took her in then disapeared. How dare this despicible man take away someone's parent like that. She hardly noticed the grip on the knife she had taken from her pocket become painful. It was like she was watching from outside her body as she crept up behind him.

Romeo watched in shock as the man standing over him collapsed with a gasp. An avenging angel with blue hair struck him down, metal blade glinting in her hand, expression filled with fury. Reality caught up to him and he realized the figure who had just knocked out Bora, but avenged his family was no angel. She was just an ordinary girl, one who was looking scared of her own actions, eyes becoming wide as she took in what she had just done. She sank to her knees, trembling, tears beginging to form in her large eyes. Romeo was grieving to. He had lost his dad and seen the man fall, unable to get up and escape from any zombies. He was sickened for being pleased that the death was avenged but horrified at the future loss of life. Still, he put his arms round her and they cried together.


	4. Chapter 4

Juvia was crying. She knew that she shouldn't as her sobs would attract the undead but she couldn't help it. She couldn't stay silent if her heart was breaking and she was alone again. She had survived with a friend that she had known back from before.

The rain poured down, she was drenched. But she didn't care. Cold crept into her bones and her blood felt like ice in her veins, yet she couldn't bring herself to care. Her companion was dead. He had screamed at her to run, yelled to get the zombie's attention then given one last smile before he disappeared. She never saw him again. Cobra had dissapeared forever.

The gun he had given her shook in her hands his last words echoed in her head.

"Protect yourself."

Her tears had dried up now. She heard swearing and she lept to her feet. No, it wasn't his voice but maybe, just maybe she could move on. But then hesitated. What if she got them killed? Maybe it was better for them if she left.

They cried for help. Juvia rushed towards the scene.

Protect yourself.

Maybe she couldn't bring him back but she could protect. As long as she was alive, no one would suffer the way Cobra had to. Then gun no longer shook in her hands and her aim was spot on. Three zombies fell a meter away from the raven haired male she had protected. His dark gaze fell on her and he smiled.

"Thanks."

"You are welcome." Maybe it was because the rain had stopped but she felt just a tiny warmer. It was like her heart started beating.

"We could be a team. Survive together." He suggested, offering his hand.

She made her choice.

They walked forward together. Not so alone anymore.

"Natsu, wake up. Natsu." Lucy begged. She was scared. Her heart was beating and hear head was spinning.

"Mphf whaat?" He said, streching.

"I think they found us." His eyes snapped into focus and he tensed, totally alert. Sure enough the groans of zombies could be heard through the doors. He gulped and grabbed their packs and chucked one at her.

"We've got to move. Now." She felt numb and merley nodded.

They had stayed in a house with a side door and they left through that. The zombies fell onto them in a tide and yet again they ended up running. They outpaced the stumbling creatures pretty quickly but there was one zombie that was freakishly fast and kept gaining on them.

"Damm you Jet." Natsu howled as the claw like hands of Jet missed him by an inch. They had gone by street after street and the slowed. The zombie's stanima never seemed to end so they were forced to fight. Only he was charging straight towards her. She was frozen in fear and her eyes widened as she saw her death rush towards her in ...

pink?

Natsu was suddenly there in front of her. His arms spread wide to protect her and he winced as the zombies claws slashed at his chest. His scarf was chucked at her face and he tackled Jet to the floor and they wrestled there. The number of infected cuts increased and they both knew he was far past the point of no return.

"RUN!" He bellowed and she turned and sprinted away. She looked back and through her tears she saw a sadder version of the grin she had come to love.

 **Relax guys. He might not die... Maybe... Nah, he'll live. I think.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I decided not to kill him... Maybe some other characters later instead? :D Also, we have a cover now! It was made by Silver_Defiant :D :D :D 03102001, you get your wish.**

Everything was fuzzy. What had he been doing? Fighting Droy, or was it Jet to save some one. He was infected but he didn't feel anything. He was aware of being hungry. But Lucy said he was always hungry so that wasn't anything to worry about. Lucy, Lucy... Who was she again? He was hungry. That was it. He was going to eat. But what? He didn't have food. Lucy had the food. Who was she? He wanted to eat now. But Lucy. He felt he needed to remember. He needed to move, destroy something. No that wasn't it. Find Lucy, make her happy again.

"Please Natsu." A female voice echoed through his head. Lucy. That was Lucy. And he was Natsu. That made sense. Funny, 'cause he never used sense before. But he needed to find Lucy. Keep her safe.

"Why Natsu?" He had done something bad. But what? He didn't know.

"You'll never forget me right?" It happened when they were on the way to Fairy Tail and she wanted to be friends. And of course, he'd immediatley agreed.

"I promise." he said.

Everything faded away, the light bursting into his vision. He wasn't hungry.

He remembered.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. He cursed himself. How did he forget? His second concern was that Lucy wasn't there. Then that he didn't recognise his surroundings, when did he move? And finally the zombies turning to him. So he ran.

Life without Natsu sucked. Lucy couldn't just accept the fact that he died. Her annoying, loud and funny best friend couldn't be gone. He wouldn't just fade from the world. One day she would give his scarf back to him and they would laugh together again. That was all she wanted. She spent three days waiting for him to burst in and grin. It didn't happen and she had been careless. The zombies were coming and it was a dead end. She had about five minutes to live and found herself thinking of the pink haired idiot. _At least I'll be with him._

The air exploded. The zombies howled in pain as the fire roared triumphantly. She dared to hope that maybe...

"Hey Luce, can I have my scarf back now?"

It was really him. He looked slightly different. No wounds, they had healed at some point. His teeth looked slightly pointed and his eyes seemed more alert. But he was still Natsu. Still an idiot who blew stuff up and saved her life.

They had made their camp in an actuallly safe location and they had talked and laughed. Natsu seemed distracted like he was actually thinking.

"Natsu, what happened to you?" She asked. He jumped.

"I was a zombie for a bit then I turned back to normal." He said, avoiding her eyes.

"Natsu?" She was worried now. What was wrong, why was he like this?

"Fine. It feels weird."

"What feels weird?"

"I can see better, apparently move faster and smell things."

"Is it an effect of the thing?" She couldn't bear to mention how he'd nearly died.

"I think so..."

He looked so hopelessly lost that she couldn't bear it. She hugged him. At first he stiffened in the embrace then hugged her back.

"Well well, look what we've got here."

A sneer dirifted over to them followed by the sharp sound of a slap.

"Om my gosh Lu-chan, long time no see. You got yourself a boyfriend! That's so cool." Levy gushed, jumping up and down.

"Salamander."

"Iron face."

Natsu suddenly scowled. "How much did you guys hear?"

"Oh! Was it dirty? Lu-chan!" Levy squealed.

"Tch, didn't think you had it in you Salamander."

"Get out."

"No."

The two sprang into a fist fight almost immeadiatley after. Levy rolled her eyes and the two caught up.

Levy and Gajeel had had pretty low encounter rate with zombies but some pretty funny stories of getting kicked out survival guilds. Levy suddenly got serious.

"Seriously Lu-chan. What were you talking about? It sounded pretty bad." Lucy hesitated. She'd known Levy since year seven and she was definately a good friend. But then she saw it. The sudden pleading look Natsu sent her. He had stopped the fight with Gajeel just to whisper one word.

 _Please._

She shook hear head."No sorry Levy. I can't tell you."

Levy looked hurt but nodded. They ended up joining forces to try to survive.

"So _Natsu,_ you gonna tell me what's up?"

"No way."

Gajeel snorted. "Oh please. Something is clearly bothering you. Just spit it out."

"No." Natsu spat, rolled over and tried to sleep.

Gajeel finally gave up. "Whatever. I'll listen if you want to talk."

Natsu waited until he heard Gajeel's breathing slow and his rumbling snores start to echo off the walls. Levy had drifted a while ago and Lucy had slipped outside a while ago. Her scent was easy to follow and he easily swung himself up next to her. The roof tiles were cool but he didn't care.

"Hey."

"Sup." She looked at him. Thankfully there was no pity in her eyes, only concern.

"Do you want to talk about... That?" she asked carefully.

He thought about it and she stared at his face, enchanted by the way his skin seemed to glow silver in the starlight. When she looked at her own had she realized that it was the same for her. She had missed seeing the night sky, the cresent moon shining peacefully.

"I figured out some stuff... Like this, promise not to scream."

His eyes closed and he breathed deeply, clearly concentrating. Lucy put her hands over her mouth to stop herself from crying out. His hands had turned from normal to sharp, razor claws, gleaming and wicked.

"I knew I was a monster." he said sadly, trailing off as his hands turned back to normal.

Lucy felt her heart breaking for him. She took his now normal hand and smiled.

"No, Natsu Dragneel. You are awesome. We can fight fire with fire. You are amazing, funny and I love you." She went red at the last part, waiting for his laugh.

He did his grin that made her heart flutter. "Good. I'd hate to think that my feelings were one sided."

The moon shone down on the two teens kissing on the roof.


	6. Chapter 6

Wendy screamed when the hands grabbed her. She and Romeo quickly became friends in the three days that they traveled. Neither of them mentioned Bora or the bodies they left behind.

They had become acustomed to defending each other and quickly realized they worked well as a team. When her shrill scream pierced the air, he was there immediatley. He had a poket knife at the guy's throat before she could even see who it was.

"GAH! Wendy, call off your pyscho boyfriend." Zeref yelled.

They both went red and spluttered "N-No way are we.."

Romeo let go of the knife. Zeref looked around egarly. "Is Natsu with you?" he asked hopefully. Wendy shook her head sadly. Zeref sighed.

"He's tough. He'll make it, he _has_ to."

Wendy nodded and Romeo looked a little arkward.

Zeref looked happy. "Great, you found another survivor. We've got pretty much the whole guild here, with three people missing. Natsu, Jet and Droy."

They had made a base in an abandoned warehouse. Exits had been installed by Erza and Jellal. There were camps and someone had gone to the trouble to get a load of bunks from a nearby bed store. Wendy felt a glow in her chest that always came with being with her family. She saw Romeo begin to smile as well when he was welcomed by everyone. For the first time in a long while, they felt safe.

They had been walking for a while when Natsu randomly stiffened.

"Can I lead the way now?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

He failed. Miserably.

"Jeez Salamander, what got your panties in a twist?" Gajeel asked, trying to sound as annoying as possible. Huge sucssess.

"I recognise the area. Fairy Tail may be nearby." He was proud of coming up with an excuse so quickly. He wasn't going to say there was a smell that was similar scent to Wendy and he was fairly sure it was her. It smelled old but if they followed it they could get to Fairy Tail the next day. Gajeel nodded.

"Fine, we'll follow you. On one condition. Where did you and bunny girl go last night?" He smirked as the mentioned pair went red.

"Erm... I don't wanna say-" Lucy was cut of by Natsu shamlessly saying

"We kissed and stuff."

Levy squealed and Gajeel smirked. They followed him without complaint. As though she knew that he had his doubts, Lucy slipped her hand into his and gave it a comforting squease. He grinned, she always managed to cheer him up.

Wendy was woken by a banging noise. It was joined by two or three other things slamming against the warehouse doors. She felt as though she hadn't slept enough in the past two days. Then in total it sounded like five hands were slamming against the steel doors at the front of the warehouse and she jumped up. She ran to the doors, heart beating fast and then she screamed.

A familliar voice was yelling. "Oi! Open up and let us in!"

She flung open the doors and tackled the pink haired boy to the floor.

"Natsu! You're alive. Yay, yay yay." She hugged him tightly just to check he was real.

A warm hand ruffled her hair. Yep, definately real.

"How ya been?" He asked.

"Really good. I've only been here for a day but I had Romeo before and we teamed up."

It was only then that she noticed the four people standing behind him. "Who are they?"

"The blonde one is Lucy, my girlfriend. The blue haired one is Gajeel's girlfriend. Gajeel is the ugly one and Cobra is the guy we found yesterday."

"Hey!"

"I am not Gajeel's girlfriend!" He grinned. Wendy smiled. He hadn't really changed at all.

One day earlier.

Natsu could smell that they were getting close. Several scent trails overlapped here and all seemed to head in the same direction. His head snapped around when he heard the footsteps coming nearer. A guy with spiky brown hair smiled at them.

"Hi, I'm Cobra. Mind if I come with you? Surving on your own is hard."

Natsu stared. The guy had fangs. Just like him.

"Sure buddy. Can I just talk to you for a sec?" He grinned and Cobra's eyes widened.

"Yeah okay." Lucy had seen too and smiled at him.

He then dragged Cobra over to a random building and closed the door behind them.

"Were you attacked by a zombie?" Cobra asked.

"Yeah, you?" Natsu asked quickly. Was there a chance he could get some awnsers?

"Yeah. Woke up later, fangs, smell and hearing all improved. Not to mention I couldn't get used to seeing."

"What about this?" Natsu's hands turned to claws. Cobra nodded and the two did a high five with their hands like that.

"I'm guessing that your friends don't know."

"Could you not tell them?"

"Don't worry, I won't." From that moment on, they had been friends.

Back to present.

"NATSU!" Zeref yelled.

"Hey bro!" Natsu yelled back. The two brothers hugged.

"I-I'm so glad you're safe." Zeref sniffed. He'd started crying from releif. Mavis fondly rolled her eyes and went over to the new members and started explaining about the guild to them. They all seemed absorbed in what she was saying so Natsu led Zeref over to a dark corner.

"I'm sorry. Jet and Droy didn't make it. Also, Jet is still really fast so he's dangerous."

Zeref looked down. "Right. Thank you." They were interupted by Erza who slapped him on the back and offered her congratulations on survival. Then Jellal who smiled and said 'hi' quietly. Through all the chaos of the evening he hardly got to talk to Lucy. He heard someone move and knew that she was going to watch the stars again. He crept after her and saw Cobra shrug when he saw them.

"How you finding the guild?" he asked.

"It's great, like a real family." she said, eyes shining.

"Mavis is really nice and Erza and Jellal." The finished at the same time, saying the exact same thing.

"But I hardly get to spend any time with you."

"Well then. We may as well star gaze together then." She said. They may have kissed a couple of times as well, but everyone saw that one coming.


	7. Chapter 7

They were sent to go gather supplies about two weeks after they joined. Natsu and Lucy went to a shop that wasn't too far away. Everything went a little too smoothly. The cans were near the back but they were sealed tight and were decent foods. Why had nobody come here before? Everything was perfect.

The found out why just when they left. Five zombies advanced towards them. They were fast. They advanced with a frightening pace.

"Natsu. I'm scared. What do we do?" she asked, voice dropping to a whisper.

"We're Fairy Tail. We fight. I may as well test these things out." His hands turned into the dreaded claws. She grabbed her whip and long knife. Erza had a ton of weapons as she used to do fencing. She'd offered Lucy a sword but when Lucy admitted she didn't know how to fence, promised to teach her.

With a flash of claws, the first zombie collapsed onto the floor, gaping hole in its stomach. Lucy tripped one up with her whip then threw a basket at it. Taking inspiration from the enviroment, she tipped a trolley over it for good measure. Natsu had taken down another zombie and was now going hand to hand, or claw to claw with the fastest and meanest looking undead.

They were a blur of claws and snarls. She didn't really want to go near that. The remaining zombie sprinted towards her and she pushed a shelf over so it squashed the zombie. Several baskets were flung at it just to be safe.

With a crash the zombie was sent through the window, she saw it struggling to get up. Natsu lunged and she saw what he meant by 'apparently faster' she couldn't believe the speeds at which he ran. He was there and finished it off in about two seconds. His claws turned back into hands and he wiped the blood off an abandoned reciept. Or five.

"Were you scared? Sorry." he murmured, looking down.

"Nah, you were awesome." she said, taking his now clean hand. He still insisted on carrying the bag of supplies. His way of trying to be a gentleman.

Wendy knew something was going to go wrong. She and a girl called Rosaline had gone to get supplies. Rosaline hated her and had taken a fancy to Romeo and had been flirting with him at every opportunity. Romeo had soon gotten tired of this and shared exasperated looks with her. She supposed Rosaline was prettier than her. She had dark pink hair that she kept in a plait. There was always some big, over the top hair clip in her hair and she had these big chocolate brown eyes. She also had a large amount of make up on her face, as though she'd raided a store. She smiled a fake smile and jumped up and down in 'joy' when they had to go raiding together.

She was annoyingly agile so they jumped over the roofs and getting there only took an hour. Raiding and stuffing the bag was easy as well. There was a group of five zombies nearby but they wandered back the way the girls had come. Wendy knew something was wrong when Rosaline carried that bag.

She kept up easily enough but then stopped her just above where the zombies were. Claiming she needed a break. She didn't even look tired but Wendy knew that she'd complain.

"You know I've always hated you. You're just a waste of space, getting between me and Romeo." Rosaline smirked and walked towards her, balancing carefully. "You're better off dead." The shove was so sudden that she didn't have time to move. Wendy fell. She screamed in agony as the zombies tore at her. The last thing she saw was the cruel smirk on Rosaline's face as she turned away.

It was dark. The onimous black covered her like a blanket and that was when it started. Pain exploded like fireworks. Why was she here? Her head hurt. Why? It splattered crimson against her vision, making a gahstly pattern.

"You're not giving up are you?" That voice. Natsu. Warm. Friendly. He didn't want her to be here. Why was she here?

"Wendy's dead! She slipped on a roof and fell. She-She's a zombie now!" Sobbed Rosaline as she burst into the warehouse.

"What?" Natsu's head snapped up. His eyes went dark and he ran straight for the door. Lucy and Romeo followed. The rest of the guild crowded around, giving comfort to the mourner that was smiling inside.

"We need to go faster." Romeo yelled.

"Fine. Both of you grab a hand." Natsu said grimly. Romeo didn't get it but Lucy did, she took his left hand and gripped it tightly. Confused and mourning for Wendy, Romeo did what Lucy did. He didn't expect to be jerked off his feet and the see the houses flash by. Natsu somehow seemed to know where he was going. They got to the place where Wendy was struggling to sit up. She didn't seem to be a zombie yet but clearly not human.

"Wendy!" he cried desperatley.

The cry echoed in her head. She heard it. It was Romeo. She knew him. He was her friend. Her vison came back so suddenly that she cried out. It was so sharp that she flinched. Her nose felt weird and she could smell something. She heard something and curled up into a little ball, waiting for it all to stop. Something was suddenly there, comforting her. Whispering, 'it's okay' 'I'm here' 'I'll help you'.

Romeo was beyond suprised. Wendy suddenly looked very human and blinked. she started screaming and it looked like she had fangs like... Like Natsu. Lucy looked amazed, she whispered "Just like him."

"Just like who?" Lucy looked at the pair and sighed.

"Natsu jumped in front of me and got bitten. He came back totally fine a couple of days later. He said he could smell things, see better and move faster." she broke off looking sad.

"Looks like Wendy shares the same fate."

"O-Oh. Is she still herself?"

"Yes."

"Then I can accept that." Lucy smiled and ruffled his hair.

"You're a good kid."

"How? How can you help me?"

"I've been through it too. I'm like you."

"R-Really?"

He nodded. She could see now. She was used to it now. The smells didn't seem too overwhelming. She could hear Romeo, he accepted her like this. Natsu helped her stand and she wobbled over to Romeo. They limped towards the shelter together. Romeo promised not to say anything. Natsu kicked the doors open. The whole guild looked up to see Wendy standing there, alive and very much not a zombie.

The whole guild cheered. Cobra sighed when he saw the fangs. Now she had to live with not knowing what she was. Zeref was furious. He stormed over to a stammering Rosaline.

"What really happened out there?" he spat. Rosaline was too scared and merley stuttered. Zeref sighed and went over to Wendy, who was still being supported. He knelt down and asked gentley.

"Wendy, what happened."

Her voice was still shaking but she magaged to say "S-Shoved me."

Zeref's eyes went dark. "Rosaline get out. You are no longer a part of Fairy Tail."

The bully burst into tears and grabbing her stuff ran angrily out the guild.


	8. Chapter 8

Natsu woke to being poked in the side. It was a frantic sort of poking. They wouldn't give up. Groaning, he rolled over and opened his eyes. He saw the worried face of Wendy. "Help me." she whispered. He had been poked with a rubber that had been left on the floor after someone had been drawing.

He was instantly alert, what had happened? "My hands." She said quietly in a sad tone. She looked like a drooping flower. Cobra sighed and woke up. For some reason, his hearing was so much better that theirs. The downside was how hard it was for him to sleep. Wendy could move faster and he was, according to Lucy, terrifyingly wicked when fighting with his claws. She had to reassure him that it was a compliement.

Wendy had discovered the wonders of claws. Natsu took her 'hand' and lead her outside. Cobra sighed and followed. Lucy and Romeo also snuck out. Wendy looked at her claws and let out a small whimper. Natsu put a hand on her shoulder. He then turned his hands into claws and played a hand game with her. Cobra attempted to cheer her up by making shadows with the torch Lucy provided. Wendy giggled.

"They _could_ be fun but how do I get rid of them?" she asked.

"Imagine your hands are normal." She blinked then looked strained. Her hands went back to normal and a grin split Romeo's face.

"You did it, see!" he exclaimed.

"Who did what?" Zeref asked. "Dare I ask why you are outside at 6am?" The group shuffled their feet akwardly.

"We wanted to get some practice killing zombies." Natsu blurted out.

Lucy face palmed. That, _that,_ was seriously the best he could come up with. To cover up her exasperation she snapped.

"Idiot, you weren't supposed to tell him!"

He rolled his eyes. "At least lie convincingly. You are all in your pajamas. And you have a torch." Cobra snorted.

"Nah, we were helping Wendy develop her zombie powers and teaching her the correct use of claws."

Zeref chuckled "Good one, seriously what the actual hell were you doing?"

None of them could come up with an acceptable excuse. Natsu grinned nervously. Zeref squinted. "Is it me or are you teeth sharper?"

"Just you!" Natsu exclaimed cheerfully.

"No... They _are_ sharper. What happened to you?" Their conversation was interrupted by a zombie. None of them had any weapons and they tried to back away. The zombie was one of the fast ones and kept coming. Natsu knew what would happen if it got to them and he couldn't let that happen, no matter the cost. His brother, little Romeo, his friend, little sister and his wonderful Lucy would all be hurt. He couldn't- wouldn't let that happen. His hands turned to claws snd he darted forwards, their claws met with a loud clang. He knew he needed to end this, by the smell of things, six more were coming. He had a sudden stroke of inspiration. He kicked the zombie with enough force that it was sent flying then used his claws to finish it off.

"Six more!" he called over to Cobra and Wendy. They both nodded. Their hands turned to claws and they lunged towards the approaching zombies. They were done in five minutes. Their claws turned back to hands. Natsu glanced back at the group to check that they were all okay. Lucy and Romeo looked relieved, if a little awed but Zeref... He had sunk to his knees and was trembling. "When? When did this happen?" he croaked. Natsu's gentle tone suprised most of them.

"A while ago. I was protecting Luce from Jet. I jumped in front and woke up like this three days later. The claws came with a little practise. Cobra was looking around for other people and was just super lucky. Wendy was when Rosaline... Thingy."

Zeref looked a little pale. "You're dead?"

Natsu sighed "I don't think so." Lucy nodded.

"He has a pulse."

Zeref nodded, seeming to calm down. He looked down. "I supose it was too much to hope that we could escape unscathed."

"Bro, don't say that... I'm not hurt, I'm just..." he stopped, not knowing what to say.

"Not human." supplied Cobra (un)helpfully.

"Thanks for that." Natsu said sarcastically.

"Any time." Cobra said carelessly, closing his eyes.

"You can't tell anyone." Lucy said urgently.

"Not even Mavis. This may distress her and she's too close to giving birth to be put under any strain." stated Wendy, using more advanced vocabulary than Natsu in a single sentence.

Zeref nodded. He turned and walked back into the warehouse, turning his head so Natsu couldn't see him cry. Sometime, he really hated his heightened senses, the knowledge cut into him like a knife. Natsu stared at his hands. _What am I?_ He wondered. He felt a warm hand on his shoulder. Lucy smiled her beautiful smile. "I told you already. You're Natsu." he smiled. He was so thankful to have her.

 **Hey guys. Another A/N... I'm currently working on chapter 16 for this story and I need some OCs. Could you guys please help me out by sending some OCs via reviews? If you can thanks. Hope you're enjoying the story :D**


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry, another A/N. I really need some OCs, otherwise you'll be stuck with my pretty horrible characters. Nevermind if you can't. Hope you guys enjoy!**

The sun was shining. It was the first time since the infection that the sun had appeared, people were overjoyed. They all went outside to see that it was true, the sun had been reborn. The sun sat regally in the soft blue sky, caressed by clouds and gazed down at the ruined world. People jumped, shouted and laughed, rejoicing over the return of the sun. Natsu lifted Wendy up on his shoulders as she shouted. Zeref watched from a corner. How could he act so happy, after all that happened to him. Not to mention Wendy and Cobra. Speaking of Cobra, he was walking towards him, looking a strange mixture of nervousness and happiness. His voice droped low.

"Two people are coming here."

Zeref smiled. "That's great."

"One of them knew me... Before the thing." Zeref winced. _That_ was going to be a problem.

"Right." A really big problem.

"Gray-sama, Juvia can hear voices." Juvia exclaimed, pointing forwards. "That way, come on!"

He offered her a rare smile and grabbed her hand. "Well then, lets go." She squealed and they raced a long towards the crowds. Once seeing them, the crowd roared and cheered, welcoming them to Fairy Tail. He noticed a guy with spikey brown hair hiding in a corner. He then saw a guy with black hair walk over and chuck a plastic bag at him. Spikey dude glared at him then put the bag over his head. Juvia was being welcomed by several girls, one of them with a swollen stomach.

The day passed pretty quickly. It was soon night and he had to share a bunk with a pink haired idiot.

"I'm not happy about this either."

"Good. This makes two of us."

"Whatever. You get the top." Gray scowled and ignored him, but climbed onto the top bunk.

"I hate you. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Flame brain."

Gray seriously hated this guy. He heard the springs creaking as Natsu got out of his bed. Where was he going now? Did this guy ever even sleep? He could barely make out the figure that followed him in the dim light. Well, he _had_ to know now. This could be serious blackmail material. When he got past the various bunks and to the door without waking anyone and slipped outside. What he saw shocked him. What was Lucy, an admittably pretty (but maybe not as beautiful as Ju- he decided to stop there) and sensible girl doing with this idiot?

"I know it's great and all but we hardly get any alone now." Lucy whined.

 _Oh no. Please don't let them..._ "I know. That's what now is for though, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

 _WHY DID I THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?!_

Gray decided he couldn't bear to see them kissing anymore and backed away slowly then sprinted away when he was certain that they couldn't hear him.

"Well, we freaked out Gray. He was here." Natsu said, smirking.

"Good, jokes on him for following us." She put her arms on his shoulders.

"Ahem, if I'm not interrupting anything. I need to talk to you two." They turned to see Zeref, smiling.

"Y-You're not interrupting anything!" Lucy squeaked, going red.

"We are going on a large raid tommorow. I would like you two, Gray, Gajeel, Levy, Cobra and Wendy along with Romeo."

Natsu was immediately alert. "Where are we raiding?"

"A shopping mall. Everyone I picked can more than defend themselves. We leave at 7am tomorrow. You and Lucy will gaurd the enterance."

The two nodded as Zeref turned away and walked back in muttering something about couples that the chose to ignore.

"Are you ready for tomorrow?"

"Yes Master."

"I expect sucsess. You must get to them before Makarov's troops."

"Yes Master."

"I feel they can benefit us greatly. You must no fail."

"I understand."

"I know this is a hard task but you must get to them before _his_ troops."

"I can understand that. Why though?"

"You know what they are. If they were to fall into _his_ hands then all hell would break loose."

"Alright then, I'll gather some people and we'll leave now."

"Thank you, Laxus."

 **Before you guys ask why I didn't choose Erza or Jellal, I have some plans of them that will be revealed later... Much later...**


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you to the two people who gave me OCs, I really appreciate it, I'm sorry to say that the ship will be GruVia but I might be able to find another pairing that could work for them. As usual, hope you all enjoy!**

They left at dawn. For the first half of the journey, everyone was quiet. When they were actually making progress Gray seemed to find his voice.

"Why do I go and Juvia doesn't? She's just as skilled as me. She survived after her friend was turned. Why?" he demanded angrily.

"That's exactly why we can't tell you." Zeref sighed.

"What? Aren't survival guilds built on trust!" he snarled.

Cobra let out a huff. "You dont even know what you're getting yourself into. Just mind your own buisness."

"It is my business, Juvia is my friend!" he yelled.

"Tough, you won't get any answers." Cobra growled.

"This guild is the worst. I regret joining it."

"Gray. We are only not telling you as this concerns your saftey. The truth would also upset Juvia. Please consider this before you accuse us." Zeref stated camly, again defeating them all with his cold logic and soothing formal language. Gray scowled and turned his head away, remaining in a stoney silence for the remaineder of the journey.

Needless to say things went wrong almost immeadiately. The shops were spotless, if a little dusty. Gajeel and Levy went in one direction, Romeo and Wendy in the other. Zeref opted to go alone and that meant Cobra was stuck with Gray. This arangement annoyed both of them and neither talked. They walked into a shop. They needed to get camping equipment. Winter was coming and they needed to stock up on supplies and that included tents and hiking boots apparently. Moves stiff and angry, Gray stuffed gear into the bags they had been given, not caring that Cobra was doing the same. Both shot up, weapons ready as footsteps echoed in the polished floor. It was a zombie alright, gleaming yellow eyes and curved claws. Plenty of blood over its clothes and that slight green tint to its skin. Both of them got ready to attack it and stopped, confused when it opened its mouth. Gray and Cobra both felt shocked when it spoke. It hadn't occured to them that the undead could speak, weren't they creatures warped by agony and hunger? What it said only confused Gray but Cobra looked as though he was going to be sick. His knife clattered to the floor.

"I know what you are." it hissed, pointing a claw at Cobra. "If you come with me, _he_ 'll tell you. You do want to know, don't you?" it cackled.

"What did you say?" Cobra spat venomously. His hands turned to claws and he darted forwards, at impossible speeds. "Don't mock me." he growled, killing the zombie. "No one knows what I am. Not anymore."

Gray's breaths were shallow, eyes wide with shock. Cobra turned to face him. "You wanted awnsers? Ask away."

Wendy had heard and smelled the zombies long before they approached them. She had told Romeo that they were coming and he came up with a plan. He reasoned that she had such good senses that they should be able use this against them. They broke into a Body Shop and then hid, completely concealed by some large hanging pumpkins from an early halloween display. When the zombies came, they couldn't smell anything over the large amount of perfume and body lotions that had been dumped there.

Everything had been going a little too well. Gajeel and Levy had got all the supplies Zeref asked for very quickly and were about to go back to the meeting point when about seven zombies turned the corner. The one leading them spoke. Yes it spoke and that was enough to freeze them on the spot.

"These aren't the ones we are looking for. Just kill them." Then everything sped up. They were fighting for their lives and Levy was panicking. Just as she managed to defeat one, another took its place. She cowered away, her only knife was in the skull of the other zombie and Gajeel had the weapons. The claws were reaching for her face, about to kill her when a strong fist punched the thing away. The man didn't look like a zombie but he had claws and fangs. His yellow hair was bright in contrast to the dark look on his face. A lightning shape scar streched down his face.

"Oi! _He_ sent his guys, get the hell down here!" he bellowed. Several zombies joined him and they turned on the zombies mobbing Gajeel. Soon enough all the zombies had been killed and the man and the zombies under his command dissapeared, but none of that mattered. Gajeel was lying on the floor, chest slashed open and she could see the infection.

"No!" she screamed. "Y-You can't die here, you big lug." she sobbed. She tried to stiffle her cries with her fists but it wasn't helping. Her eyes were too blury with tears to see his eyes snap open, his gaze confused. She did hear him scream. Her ears were ringing to hear him mutter. "I remember now." She felt his arms wrap around her in a hug and him whisper that it was alright, that it was okay and he was there. She didn't care how he got up, how he was human. All that mattered was that he was there.

They had taken down about two zombies each then teamed up on one. Then this guy came along and Natsu was having trouble with him. He knew Lucy was fighting behind him but he was too busy with his current opponent to help her. Claws whipped past his face, so close he could feel the breeze they created. He took another swing only to be blocked.

"That's enough." An unfamiliar voice hissed. He looked up to see another zombie standing there, arms folded smugly.

"Found you Natsu Dragneel. You will be coming with us." it cackled.

Another voice sounded behind him.

"You mean he'll come with _us._ " it said. Just the tone held so much power that the other zombies froze. A man stepped forward, his cloack blocking Natsu's view of the other two zombies. He could see ginger hair and a smile before the man almost dissapeared with how fast he moved. One of them had enough time to hiss "Gildarts!" before he was destroyed. From the sounds of things the ones Lucy was fighting had been taken out by this man as well.

Then he was picked up and flung over the man's shoulder. "Laxus, got the duct tape? He'll probably try and escape and he'll probably scream his head off and give us away. The rest, distract the blonde she'll probably hurt herself trying to stop us." Natsu could only struggle as he was gagged and bound then again cucked over 'Guildart's' shoulder. He could feel the tears streaming down his face as he watched Lucy cry and scream his name. The people who kidnapped him raced away at speeds only zombies could reach.

"What are you?" Gray asked.

Cobra sighed. "Like I said, none of us know anymore."

"Okay then, who are you?"

Cobra looked at the floor. "I am Cobra. Previous compainion of Juvia. I led the zombies away and got infected. Woke up some unknown time later. Found Natsu and his guild the next couple of days."

"Oh." Gray breathed. No wonder they couldn't tell him.

"Whatever. Let's just go back to the meeting point."

Things weren't much better there. Zeref looked worried, Wendy was talking to Levy, who was trying to support Gajeel.

"Cobra, Gray!" Wendy cried looking relieved. "Help. Gajeel can't adjust. He's like us now."

"Woah. How many of you are like Cobra."

Wendy looked mildly suprised but Zeref awnsered for her. "Natsu, Wendy and now Gajeel are like Cobra. Now, if we are all capable of moving, lets go to the enterance that Natsu and Lucy were guarding. They are the only group we haven't heard back from."

What they found hurt. Lucy was crouched on the floor sobbing. They ran over, asking what happened. Her awnser hit Zeref like a slap in the face.

"They took him, they took Natsu."

 **I am still a horrible person. You should all know by now that he won't die but other stuff could happen... ;D**


	11. Chapter 11

They had knocked Natsu out because he was still thrashing about and hard to carry. When he woke up he was in some brightly lit area. He realised that he was laying on something soft. Then the slight stinging on his arms and by his mouth. Looking down he saw that the duct tape had been replaced by bandages and that there was an ice pack on his head where the zombie wearing a helmet had knocked him out. He mangaged to sit up and look around. The room was nice enough, blue curtains, panneled walls and a nice rug on the floor. However, there were two things wrong with the place.

1) This was not Fairy Tail.

2) There was an old man in here.

The man smiled when he saw Natsu was awake. "Glad to see you're awake, that was quite a hit to the head you got."

Natsu scowled. "Maybe if you didn't kidnap me and knock me out, I wouldn't have been hit on the head."

To his suprise the man laughed. "That would be Bixlow who knocked you out. I apolagise, he is rather brutal."

Natsu wasn't in the mood for jokes. "Why did you kidnap me?" he said, expression serious for once. The laughter in the old man's eyes didn't fade, though it dimmed.

"Because of what you are."

"And that would be...?" Natsu asked, trailing of expectantly. The man sighed.

"A zombie mutation or hybrid. For some reason, the infection didn't change your mind or your body, just gave you strengths, fangs and claws."

"I had gathered that."

"You and others like you are dangerous."

"I gathered that."

"In the wrong hands you could bring forth the destruction of the world."

"We aren't tools. We're people and we have opinions."

"I am well aware of that. _He_ is not."

"Who is _he_?"

"Master of the other group of zombies."

"Okay. That still doesn't explain why you brought me here."

"To enlist you."

"Why would I join you?" his tone was challenging.

'Master' merely smiled. "We would protect the survivors guild Fairy Tail and everyone in it."

Natsu stared at him. "What about my life. Would I be able to go back to the guild?"

The Master nodded. "I don't see why not, provided you come back to report once or twice a week."

Natsu grinned. "I'll do it."

The Master smiled back. "Good. Onto training."

Training with Laxus was brutal. He was pushed constantly and hardly ever got rest. Mira, at the end of each day would cook up an awesome meal. He was on a strict diet because of his training but Mira's food was so good that he hardly noticed. Then he got an hour to meet with the guild before he was finally allowed to sleep. It turned out that, for zombies or normal people, the guild was made up of really nice people. They seemed kind and ready to accept him. This went on for a week and he began to feel comforable there. Except for one thing. He missed Lucy. Every spare moment he was thinking of her. Her smile, her face when he was taken. He wanted so badly to go back and see her but he had to stay until he was trained. Then he'd be able to protect her. He thought his training with Laxus was going pretty well. Apparently he thought so too as on the seventh day of training Laxus smiled a rare smile. "Well kid, looks like you're ready."

"For what?" Natsu asked, desperatley hoping that he could go back.

His grin became dark "Training with Guildarts." Natsu gulped.

Training with Guildarts was death. Two weeks of constant training. Fighting, speed, claws, in an endless cycle he was finally deemed ready to go back. He was given a hand drawn map and instructed to run at full speed to get there at nightfull. He thought of Lucy, Wendy, Zeref... Everyone as he ran. He got there by sunset.

It had been three weeks since they had taken Natsu. Wendy couldn't get used to it, and neither could Lucy. The new guy didn't help either. Loke had arrived a couple of days after and had inisted on taking Natsu's old bunk as he and Gray got along so well. In a sulk, Wendy and Lucy had decided to keep his stuff under their bunk and stored some popcorn Mavis had given them for when Natsu found out that his bed had been stolen. (Zeref discovered this, but instead of telling them off, made them promise to share it with him). Then Loke decided that he was hopelessly in love with Lucy and spent all day every day trying to win her over. She put up with this for about twenty seconds and told him to get lost and that she already had a boyfriend who was a million times better than him. Wendy and Romeo cheered at that. Zeref smiled fondly. That was also the last time he smiled for two weeks and five days, instead his wore a thunderous frown at what Loke tried next. He tried to convince her that Natsu wasn't coming back and reassure her that he was there now. This particular evening he was being slightly more forward about it.

"Lucy, my love, your old boyfriend is gone now."

"I'm not your love and he is coming back. So turn around and go pick on someone else!" she yelled.

"Look, Natsu is never coming ba-"

Cobra smirked. He had heard it. He heard everything.

The doors were kicked open and a familliar voice yelled "Who isn't coming back?" Natsu stood there grinning, cloths torn and ripped and slight red marks where the duct tape had been but they were hardly noticable. Lucy rushed up to him and they kissed. In front of Loke. In front of everyone. Zeref smiled fondly and leaned against the wall, arms crossed. Cobra covered Wendy's eyes and Mavis did the same for Romeo.

Natsu reacted reasonably when they told him that Loke had taken his bunk.

"I mean, that's okay, I didn't want to share a bunk with ice princess anyway. But please tell me that he didn't just throw my stuff on the floor." When no one answered him and backed away Natsu grinned. "Oh boy, I was hoping for a chance to beat you up!"

2 minutes later, Loke had 'learnt' some manners and was lying on the floor with a broken nose. Mavis helped him, unsypathetically as they all remembered what he had said before about the pink haired idiot who was the centre of their guild.

That night everyone who knew about the half zombies gathered outside on a nearby roof.

"Where were you for those three weeks?" asked Gajeel gruff voice quiet in the night.

Natsu shuffled akwardly. Romeo sighed "Is this the part where you say you can't tell us?"

"No." Natsu sighed. "I just don't know where to start. That and I lost the piece of paper."

Levy had a very good question. "How come you don't seem suprised that several of us are here in a meeting about topics that we're not supposed to know about?"

Natsu again shuffled uneasily. "Uhh... A spy came and informed me exactly what happened."

Several gasps of outrage could be heard. Zeref angrily asked. "Who is this spy?"

Just then a figure dropped onto the roof. "You dropped this." said a female voice.

"Thanks Cana!" Natsu exclaimed cheerfully. He then unfolded the paper and gave to Zeref. Cobra aimed his torch beam at the paper so they could read it.

 _Dear members of Fairy Tail,_

 _Fisrtly, we apolagize for kidnapping one of your members, Natsu Dragneel. Thankfully he was willing to co-operate and we were able to release him._

"YOU WHAT?!" Gajeel burst out.

Cobra sighed. "Lets see what he agreed to first"

 _His part of the deal has been upheld so far, therefore we are offering our protection. We will mask your hide out from His zombies and we will no longer attack you. Hopefully we can fight together now._

 _No hard feelings, Master Makarov._

"Oh dear lord. Just what did you agree to?" Zeref muttered.

Cana finally spoke. "He's not allowed to say too much, else Guildarts will come and beat him up."

Natsu went pale. "Okay, okay I won't say too much."

Zeref, Lucy, Wendy, Romeo and Levy face palmed. Cana merely shrugged. "You guys want to meet him when he's mad? Have fun then." She then vanished with the speed of a zombie, gone in a matter of seconds.

"Who is Guildarts?" Lucy asked, tone even and curious.

"The one who trained me. Also the guy you saw bossing Laxus and the others around." Natsu said.

Now Zeref was the one who went pale. "Trained you for what? They didn't hurt you did they?" he sounded anxious and at the time, looked like the definiton of a concerned brother.

Natsu shrugged. "Nah, not that much." Cobra sighed.

"What CAN you tell us?" Cobra snapped, patience running out.

"That they'll protect you guys from Hades' zombies and offer you training. Not as hard as I was trained for the humans though."

"Okay, can we trust these guys?"

Natsu didn't hesitate. "Yes. Now can Luce and I please have some alone time. I haven't seen her for three weeks and we have some catching up to do."

Gray was the first to run, not wanting a repeat of what he saw last time. The others soon followed.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Wii, Super smash bros or Mario cart.**

Clouds drifted slowly over the moon. Wisps of fog curled on the ground and Lucy snuggled closer to Natsu for warmth. He smiled and wrapped his arm round her.

"You know, there wasn't a second I wasn't thinking about you." he murmured quietly.

She nodded. "You didn't forget your promise then."

He scoffed "Why would I forget something as important as that?"

For some reason, that made her heart beat faster. "You really find it that important?" She stammered.

"Well duh, I made a promise to you. I'm gonna keep it forever." He

suddenly frowned when she yawned.

"Okay. We seriously have got to stop meeting like this. It gets you all tired. We'll work something out. Promise."

His head snapped up. "It also means that little children can spy on us." He moved so suddenly that Wendy and Romeo were still snickering when he removed the shop sign they were crouched behind.

Zeref was scared. More than he'd ever been in his life before now. He was trembling eyes large and dark with panic. He could barely think, a strange fog had entered his mind and tendrils were choking his rational thoughts. Mavis was giving birth. There was nothing he could do, he was drowning in his own helplessness. With how poorly equipped they were, the chance of losing her was very real. He didn't know how to bear it. He couldn't stay here, suffocating in the what ifs, maybe he was just being too worried. Being here would do no good for her and his stress would only hurt. That and some of the female members were chasing him out for worrying. That and as he dodged the third smut book aimed his face, he decided that now was the perfect time for brotherly bonding time.

Gray had no idea how he ended up with the Dragneel brothers. Gajeel was probably asking himself the same thing as they settled down for... mario cart? Zeref had found an abandoned house that had a living room without blood and had raided sevreal stores to set up a place to play games. He had to admit it was pretty cool to be able to sit and play video games with friends like old times. Not that they were his friends. It definitely wasn't like that at all.

Things went wrong almost from the countdown. Gray got to see the dark side of Zeref when they played. Natsu instantly sent a red shell at Gajeel the same time Gajeel threw a bomb at Gray. Then cpu Wario sped past them all. Just as they managed to recover they were trampled by Zeref, who was intent on hunting down Wario to claim first place. Gray smirked as he got a bullet bill and sent Natsu off the cliff. His car turned back to normal by a row of rainbow boxes and he smirked as he got a star. Only to have a ghost steal it and listen to Gajeel's weird laugh. Then Gajeel drove off the edge to avoid a load of trick boxes Zeref had left behind. Natsu zoomed past both of them, cackling madly, using his golden mushroom. He overtook Zeref, who snarled and used a blue shell on him. Gajeel was caught up in the explosion and Gray tried to overtake Zeref who barged him out the way then came first. Several games were played and the results were mixed to say the least.

"Right." said Zeref, seeming calm again. "Onto super smash bros brawl." there was an evil glint in his eye as he said this. As soon as he had adjusted the settings on the special brawl he went straight for Pikachu. At first Gajeel and Gray laughed at his cute choice. They failed to see the warning signs in Zeref's smirk and Natsu's scowl as he chose Link. Gray decided that he may as well choose Mario. Gajeel chose Meta knight, probably a referance to the many piercings on his face. Things went wrong for them almost immediately. Natsu made his character sprint away from Zeref as Gajeel and Gray charged at the pikachu. Natsu winced as they both got thrown of the screen after Zeref used a lightning bolt. Then proceded to use random combos of sword attacks to generally confuse everyone. Zeref still won somehow. It was sunset when they finally decided to go back to the warehouse. Silently offering their support, they walked together in a straight line.

They were met by cheers. Wendy and Romeo had just got back and Lucy ran up to them, grinning. "She did it! Just now she gave birth to twins. You got back just in time." she seemed to totally forget that she was one of the people who ordered Zeref to get out. "A boy and a girl, they're so cute!" she squealed.

 **Hey guys. I hope that you're enjoying the story so far and I'd like to ask you to suggest names for the twins. I'm really bad at naming people so I need the help :D**


	13. Chapter 13

**Thank you so much guys! I never really pictured this story being more than ten chapters long and I'm now writing chapter 20! *gives virtual cookies* I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing this. Thanks for your reviews as well... Actually, I really need help with naming Zeref and Mavis' children, so if you guys could help with that?**

"No."

"Luce, I won't be long and I have to do this. Otherwise they'll think that I'm bailing on them."

"I don't care. You are not leaving us, you are not leaving _me_ again." she insisted.

He gave a tiny smile when he realized that she was scared on losing him. "Fine. How about you come with me?" he said offering his hand. Whatever she was expecting, it certainly wasn't this. She smiled and took his hand, it was warm to the touch. She squeaked in suprise when he suddenly picked her up bridal style and sprinted away.

"Why?" she screamed when they were a safe distance away.

"I heard someone moving. They were about to come outside."

Meanwhile...

"Huh. Juvia could have sworn she head voices..."

"Besides, it's faster this way." and he shot off again. Lucy just sighed. There was no stopping him when he chose to be stubborn. Not that she minded. The journey didn't take that long, Natsu was so fast that the buildings blurred, he said it was all down to the speed training he had received. She sighed, wondering just how strong he was now. But it didn't matter, he was totally perfect no matter what happened.

She was pleasantly suprised to see the countryside. A gentle breeze ruffled the grass, gleaming in the new sunlight. Frost sparkled as it melted and a slight mist curled around the pine trees in the distance. The farm house looked warm and welcoming, wood glowing gold in the rising sun and despite its large size managed to look like a home. Natsu finally put her down and grinned, the smile that made her heart flutter. He grabbed her hands and dragged her towards the house. She predicted that the people here must be nice if they tolerated how he kicked open the doors.

Lucy gasped. They had entered what seemed like a bar area and a startlingly pretty zombie there. She smiled and waved upon seeing Natsu and Lucy.

"Hi!" she called. "Good to see you again Natsu, nice to meet you, I guess you're Lucy?" she seemed welcoming. "I'll get you two some breakfast while you see Makarov!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

"Thanks Mira!" Natsu called befire dragging her down the hall. Lucy began to feel nervous, the way everyone spoke of this guy... He must be really scary. She squeazed Natsu's hand. Somehow, his reassuring grin didnt do much to help her sudden nerves. She felt sick as they stopped by a plain white door with a polished brass door knob. Natsu barged open the door and yelled "Hey Gramps."

Lucy was shocked to see a little old man sheepishly shoving magazines in a draw. Lucy got a glance at the cover and concluded: he was a pervert.

"Yo Natsu. Got anything to report?" he asked, laughing nervously as he kicked the draw closed. "Who's this with you?"

"Mavis gave birth to twins, nothing unusal. This is Lucy, my girlfriend!"

Before he could respond, the door was kicked open. A man with blonde hair stormed in.

"MAKE SURE YOU'RE NOT FOLLOWED!" Laxus bellowed. He had a bleeding scratch on his face and a guilty Wendy tucked under his arm. Natsu smiled.

"Hey Wendy!"

"I'm sorry... I followed you while the wind blew your scent to me. You couldn't have detected me. This guy attacked me so I presumed he was the enemy..." she trailed of miserably.

Everyone looked at the master. His expression was unreadable and his eyes were dark. Laxus put Wendy down and she ran over to Natsu, who hugged her close. Eventually the master spoke. His tone was cheerful.

"Doranbolt will be the best for training her!" he exclaimed brightly. "However... We cannot keep her here, so he will go to your camp."

Lucy didn't get it. "Isn't he a zombie? How will he fit in?" she tried to keep her confusion out of her voice. Makarov seemed to understand. "That won't be an issue. Mest, as he will be called that when he is with you, is still infected. He has about a month until he is a full zombie. Anyway, you lot had better come up with a reasonable excuse for finding him. That being said, off you go to breakfast."

Mira's reaction was violent. She squealed and crushed Wendy in a hug.

"Aww, you're soo cute! What's your name? I'll get you all some breakfast!"

Which is how Lucy and Wendy ended up making a new friend over the best breakfast they had ever tasted. Mira never stopped being cheerful even when she turned to Natsu and said "By the way, Guildarts wants to see you!"

She then offered to train Lucy while Wendy went off to meet Doranbolt. Mira wasn't too harsh but definatley made Lucy work. By the end of the day, she felt a lot more confident about defending herself. The fabulous lunch she ate didn't hurt either. It was about mid afternoon when they decided to head back. Doranbolt seemed pretty nice, other than the scars on his face, she thought he looked like he'd fit in. He did however, ask the wrong question.

"Why are you always wearing that scarf?" he asked.

"Igneel gave it to me. Before he left." then Natsu's face became closed of and he went oddly silent. Well, that was until to lighten the mood, Dora-Mest, suggested a race. Everyone was far to distracted to care about the lame excuse that they came up with. Apparently, they had tried to sneak away to have some alone time, Wendy followed them and then they found Mest. She still went red at the few wolf whistles she had to endure. The only one who didn't seem to buy it was Romeo but he was soon filled in.


	14. Chapter 14

Training with Mest was hard. The getting away to train was easy. Everyone was busy with the twins and Natsu had offered to train Lucy and Romeo a bit. Gajeel and Cobra had complained but when promised that Makarov would find certain zombies that would be able to teach them specialized skills.

Still, she couldn't lie about how much she enjoyed the freedom as she was instruced to run laps over the roofs. She felt exhilerated as the wind she created rushed through her hair and the sky streched above her, endless and limitless. She felt so satisfied with her own power as she seemed to fly over the rooftops. She was then trained in dodging and claw work. Her blows were swift and accurate and she was soon able to dart away with ease. This took weeks of intense training. She knew she couldn't match Natsu's power, he was just plain scary in battle but she hoped she could fend for herself. It had taken three weeks to get to this point. Romeo seemed a little more confident now, and Lucy was coming on nicely too. People were starting to notice by the middle of the third week but that was the least of their worries. Gray asked them if Juvia could know and she was wondering about the guy that always wore a plastic bag over his head. Zeref sighed and concluded that both Mavis and Juvia needed to know. He knew he couldn't keep aa secret from her and Juvia was starting to question things, besides, it was better than causing a scene.

It wasn't physically hurting him but his emotions were a wreck. He felt bad that he was keeping something so important from Juvia, then guilty that he considered telling her someone else's secret. Then he felt bad for Cobra, who must be feeling awkward and sad that he had to hide from Juvia. Not to mention he could guess how stressed Zeref was, keeping everything in order and lying to everyone. Not to mention he was seriously annoyed with Loke now. He was still trying to win Lucy over, despite how many times she told him to get lost. He hardly got to speak to Juvia, who he trusted with his life because Loke came crying to him every time. Needless to say, he was beyond annoyed. The relief that flooded his body when they were going to tell her made him feel heavy and so unbelievably light at the same time. He decided it was best to sit down until it was time to tell Juvia and Mavis, which would be in the evening. He realised that they never really met at any other time. And it was the begining of the afternoon. He ended up bringing Juvia, Romeo, Wendy, Flame brain and Lucy to the game room. They lasted until the early evening. Then Gajeel and Levy came to join them and they ended up plaing truth or dare. That didn't end well either. Gray (stupidly) agreed to dare.

"Be locked in a room with Juvia for ten minutes..."

The first three minutes were just plain awkward. Then Juvia started blushing and he asked why.

"J-Juvia likes you Gray-sama!" she confessed. For a second he did nothing then...

"GAH! MY POOR EYES!" Gajeel bellowed. He had to go tell them that the time was up but ended up seeing them kissing. Then Gray retaliated with "At least I could ask her out, you can't even talk to Levy-" he was cut off as said Shrimp threw her shoe at him. Poor Gray, it was always something...

Juvia followed him without complaint, though she was clearly confused. He could hear that Mavis was asking questions in a hushed tone as Zeref lead her outside. The roof they always met on was now a bit crowded. Juvia finally asked a question.

"Why is everyone here?" she asked, brows furrowed.

Cobra sighed. "Promise not to scream." He removed the plastic bag. Juvia gasped and began to shake, so Gray put his arm round her.

"C-Cobra... But you died." she gasped, begining to cry.

Cobra gave her a tiny smile "Not quite." his hands turned to claws. Juvia gave a small scream, muffled by her hands. Mavis gasped and backed away.

"W-What is this?"

Zeref looked down. "Several people changed back after becoming zombies. They are all here now."

Mavis seemed to have calmed down but still looked pale. "Who?" she whispered.

"Me." Natsu looked away as his hands turned to claws.

"There's me as well." Wendy said quietly, looking at the floor.

Gajeel grunted.

Mavis breathed sowly. "Okay. What about everyone else?"

Romeo awnswered "Oh, us? We're the people that know."

Mavis tried a smile. Juvia seemed okay now. "You can't tell anyone else." Zeref stressed.

"We know." they said at the exact same time.

Doranbolt tried to lighten the mood. "Zombie party?"

Too bad he got slapped in the face. Still, the zombie party was epic indeed.

 **A/N did I use the term wrong last chapter or misspell it? I'm really confused now...**


	15. Chapter 15

**Thanks you guys, for your reviews, favourites and follows or even if you just looked at the story, it really cheered me up after some bad stuff happened. Thank you so much! :D**

It was bound to go wrong at some point. They had fooled the guild for so long that it was only a matter of time. The day started of so normally, so innocently that none of them saw it coming. It had rained, meaning they had to huddle inside. It had been fun at first. There was a large huddle in the corner, they laughed and joked for all the morning. Doranbolt said he felt a bit sick so they gave him a bag. They failed to see the early warnings, the dark clouds on the horizon.

Doranbolt felt sick. His stomach was churning his head felt hot and it was pounding like a drum. Black dots danced teasingly across his vision and he struggled to hold on to reality. His whole body felt hot and the blood felt slow in his veins. His skull throbbed and his thoughts drifted lazily through his burning brain. He felt his knees go weak and the heard the dull thud as he hit the floor. The brief sting in his knees was soon swallowed by a new wave of agony. His back arched as a sceam tore its way out of his throat, everything was burning, explosions lighting up behind his eyes. He groaned, it was all too much, anything to be free of this.

Everyone looked up at the scream. The air was thick with tension as heads snapped around to see what was happening. Then the few seconds of silence were shattered as people screamed and scrambled away from him. They all saw the fangs and his skin slowly turning a putrid green and the stench of blood and death rolling from the man who had been one of their own.

Mavis had whimpered then cuddled the twins close, twisting so she was covering them with her body. Their group had eyes wide with shock, gazing in a daze at the twisting form of Doranbolt. It was too early, it wasn't supposed to happen, not yet. Doranbolt started to get up but he didn't look like himself anymore. He looked like any other zombie, looking around hungrily and making a low growling noise. He also seemed to have a huge power boost as he lunged, claws glinting sinisterly. Romeo cowered away, defenecless as the zombie advanced. Romeo let out a small whimper as the claws streched towards his face. Nobody counted on Wendy. She flung herself between them, claws clashing with his and the metallic clanging notes danced around the guild. She didn't last long, this guy was a monster. She was soon hurled in to a wall in one sweep of Doranbolt's arms. Then Natsu snarled and rushed forwards. Their claws became blurs as both attacked fiercely, growls echoing through the ware house. Lucy ran over to Wendy and started pulling her to where Romeo had placed a first aid box. The crowd stared on in shock, eyes wide and round in awe at the fight. Natsu snarled and dashed forwards. Doranbolt howled and did the same. They rushed forwards, still at impossible speeds.

Everything seemed to slow down as they both collapsed, crimson tides rapidly expanding. Lucy screamed and rushed forwards. Wendy, who had managed to sit up instructed a suprisingly calm Jellal what to do while Zeref panicked. Then the questions started. An endless flood of people demanding answers and confused voiced, so Zeref settled on a speech.

Gajeel thought he was envious of Natsu and Wendy, who were too out of it to care about the speech. He thought that Zeref seemed nervous and whilst explaining what happened to certain people, he was careful not to mention any names. It was almost as if he knew what was coming next. He wondered if Levy would come with him like Lucy and Romeo did when the two zombie hybrids were chased out of the guild by a mob, weapons being flung at them. Gajeel screamed inside as he heard the cries of 'monsters' and insults. Instead, he watched numbly as Zeref turned away, eyes pools of sorrow, sadness crossing his features as he stepped away, whispering something that his sensitive ears only just caught.

"Please, be safe..."


	16. Chapter 16

**Thanks for your OCs guys, I would have had real trouble without them :D. I tried to make them fit in the best I could but if you don't like it then PM me and I'll try to edit it. Hope you all enjoy!**

Zeref sighed as he looked out onto the sunset. The sky truly was beautiful, the scarlet wings of fire spreading across the sky in a magnificent arc. He wondered if his brother was doing the same thing, however far away he was. Zeref hated the distance that seperated them, it cut him like a knife but he knew his brother wasn't coming back. Even if the guild suddenly accepted them back and ignored what they were, which was unlikely as they had chased of Cobra a month ago, he had seen his eyes. Natsu's eyes had burned with hurt and betrayal. Then there was rage flashing as one of the weapons nearly hit Lucy, it had shot through Zeref and he imagned the once laughing face of his brother. That image was dissolving, he couldn't forget those eyes that burned into his soul.

They had all heard the rumours and it had put the guild in a good mood. A new survivors guild had appeared and they were _very_ good at fighting the zombies, terrifyingly efficient. And another, it was rumoured that they were allied. They were both powerful but neither ever let anyone know their names. They cropped up a week after the zombie hybrids had left, maybe they had been wiped out by these survivors guilds.

Silvia blinked. She rolled her warm brown eyes and gazed fondly at the boy who had fallen asleep on watch. She nudged him with her foot. He moaned then stirred, yelping and suddenly shot up, nearly hitting her head as she jerked backwards. "Jeez, Gold, you can't just keep falling asleep on watch." She teased gently. He mumbled something in response.

"But you're so much better We- sorry, Silvia... I dreamed about before. Your hair wasn't pink then. It still suits you though." The now pink haired girl playfully shoved her boyfriend. Yes, boyfriend, they had needed quite a lot of comfort hugs after they ran. Everything seemed so strange on their own and she had dyed her hair and everything was so different. They changed their names, she dyed her hair and he didn't do much, but it was unlikely that anyone would try to hunt him down. Cobra had turned up at the guild Ivory wings a couple of weeks later. He had become someone new, Erik. The guild's master, Heart, a girl with curly blond hair and a sweet smile, had welcomed him then said that they knew what the fangs meant but no one here cared anyway, they had two of their own like him anyway. Wendy had rushed forward and hugged Erik. The other zombie hybrid, Shadow hid in the corner, wild black hair melting into the darkness, half a smile visable, twisting out from the burnt and cracked mask. One side of her face was that of a girl's, innocent and sweet, the other hidden and mysterious. Cobra wasn't the only one who was sad. Cobra was often seen holding Kurei in his arms. The shy girl had long black hair, one bright emerald streak was nearly always with Cobra, sharp mossy eyes glowing with a light that they hadn't held since the zombies came for her family. It seemed everyone was moving on and taking control of their lives again. The depressing news was that he hadn't heard where Natsu and Lucy were but they both guessed he was safe. Besides, all answers came back to them eventually.

There was a new guild and its name wasn't particually nice. The people in it were happy though, and all said they were glad to be a part of it. The name was Tartaros, led by END and Ashley (Lucy). Natsu and Lucy hadn't bothered to change their apperances. They didn't see reason to, if anyone came after them, they were more than able to deal with them. Natsu hadn't changed. He still joked around and made all their members feel involved. No one would drive them out, they only accepted people who didn't care what he was, in fact, one of their best members was like him, found shivering on the streets one night. Her name was Riley and she said people had disliked her because of her purple hair and mismatched eyes but she was an excellent fighter and had found a home in their guild. Some admired them for surviving the infection, nobody hated him once they got to know them. He would be to first one on the battle field and the one to cheer estatically when someone new joined. Lucy would then roll her eyes lovingly at him then go show the new member around, Riley was more closed of but was soon well known for her jokes. They called him E.N.D as he requested but he said that just round the guild, Natsu was fine. Lucy almost wished she could keep her old name, but if Fairy Tail came looking then they couldn't know just by what they heard. Mard Geer, who was so very understanding and helpful, came to them with some news and Riley, who offered encouragement every step of the way. About Wendy, Cobra and Romeo, or their believed where abouts. Mard smiled when he was asked to represent them first, saying he was honoured to help his first family.

When they heard the knocking and the door creaked open, Silvia and Shadow were there in an instant. Whatever Mard was expecting, it certainly wasn't to have a two girls with claws leaping at him. He stepped back swiftly, carefully avoiding the frenzied, slashing claws.

"Calm down!" he called. "I come in peace."

Silvia and Shadow stepped away. Erik didn't move from where he had shoved Kurei behind him, though he did stop growling menacingly. Mard smirked when he saw the hybrids back away. "Looks like the rumours were true after all." he murmured under his breath.

Heart strode forward, grim smile plastered across her face.

"Okay then, _sir._ What is it you've come to discuss." she said, formal tone cold. Mard smiled.

"Oh, it isn't me. I was here to check for members of a certain guild." he replied smoothly, stepping back. END and Ashely stepped into the guild, faces serious and calm. Of course, that didn't last as Romeo *cough* Gold *cough* yelled.

"Natsu, Lucy!" he cried, estatic. Wendy squealed and rushed forward. Natsu looked suprised for a fraction of a second then grinned. "Wendy, Romeo, great to see you made it!" he exclaimed cheerfully. Heart saw the fangs and realized why they had been acting like that. They had come to discuss an allience. Against Fairy Tail.


	17. Chapter 17

**A quick detour from the main story, as I know I mentioned that Jellal and Erza had something to do, this is their story. Again, thanks for reading and reviewing, I really appreciate it :D**

Erza paused for what seemed like the millionth time and asked. "Are you sure you want to do this?" to Jellal, tone becoming increasingly concerned and uncertain.

Jellal sighed and smiled fondly, his voice firm and soothing. "Erza, I am fine, and yes, I'm sure that I'm okay with this. Just as I was two minutes ago. I appreciate your concern though."

Erza blushed furiously, cheeks stained a bright pink. She sped up her pace, leaving the smirking teen behind her. He chuckled then jogged after her. When he finally caught up and persuaded her to turn around and look at him, his face was serious.

"Really Erza, there is no need to be worried. We're doing this for the greater good and it won't go wrong."

She was certainly stubborn. "How do you know?"

He hestitated briefly, wanting to say something that he knew he may never get the chance to say. "Because we're the best team, we can do anything."

The words left unspoken: _Because when I'm with you, I feel like I can do anything._

So they chatted on the long walk to their mission. Somehow, a cruel man who went by the name of Bora came up. He used to travel with them.

"That guy was a total creep."

"I know right, I'm so glad that we lost him after a couple of days."

"I wonder what happened to him?"

Far away, a zombie stuck under a trolley sneezed. **(A/N Any one know when that happened?)**

"Who cares? He's far away now." The teens laughed then carried on. When they had to split up, Erza felt bad, even if it was only for a couple of days while he infiltrated the Tower of Heaven survivors guild that was terrorizing the other survivor guilds in the area. She was to help the guilds recover and then they would all attack the dark guild.

The next few days were horrible. Killing zombies, treating wounds and hoarding weapons. The wounds were horrible, Erza hardly knew what to do and the gashes were horrifying when untreated, the zombies were all fast and efficent and the weapons hard to find. Eventually she managed it and she had about 30 other people charging towards the old block of flats that was their base. She knew that the leader would be at the top of the building, which is why she and the five overe members of the self proclaimed elite combat force streaked up the strairs while the other 25 battled it out with the members. She told them to let anyone who tried to leave run. Particually if they had blue hair. And a red tatoo.

The roof was actually nice. Or was, at some point. The bushes were overgrown, thorns twisting and bursting from the plants. The blooms were bright in a sickly way and the smell was choking, thick and it dulled their senses. What horrifed Erza the most though, was the man standing next to the leader.

Jellal offered them a cold smirk, eyes flashing with fury. The man on the chair boomed with thunderous laughter. He stood up and reached for his knife. Jellal spoke, voice strained with anger. "Lord Zero, please, there is no need to concern yourself with these weaklings." The man just shrugged it off. "Don't worry Jellal, I needed a work out anyway."

Then they were both attacking. Erza didn't know what to think, her thoughts were buzzing in her head, was Jellal really that good of an actor or had he betrayed her? It was probably because of these jumbled thoughts that she ended up with Zero just about to stab her. Her only thought was that if Jellal would care. Zero suddenly stiffened and coughed once. He collapsed and Erza got the view of Jellal trying to pull his knife out of Zero's chest. There was blood everywhere. His eyes burned with anger, bright with a fire Erza had never seen before. She turned away so she didn't have to see the knife come out. It wasn't that she was grossed out, it was because she respected Jellal and didn't particually want to see him have to use his foot to get the blade out.

The rest of the team rolled their eyes and went to finish the battle downstairs. Jellal gave her a small smile before they rushed into the combat. Erza was more than happy with fighting. The heat, sweat, and blood was worth it. The song of battle cries and screams were music to her ears. All she had to think was _duck, slash, move. One down, loads to go._ Nothing about how she thought Jellal had betrayed her and why it made her feel so angry and hurt. Or about the fluttering thing her heart did when he saved her. She could save that until later.

The later was when they were finally heading back to the guild about a week later. Jellal had acted no differently, almost as if infiltrating the guild never happened. Just as they were setting up a camp, she finally found the courage to speak, she didn't know why she was scared. She was hardly ever scared.

"Jellal. Are you really such a good actor? What happened in there?" She blurted, voice catching at the end. Her cheeks were flushed from embarrasment and some other emotion she decided she didn't really care for. Jellal looked slightly ashamed.

"Zeref chose me for this mission because my acting skills were perfect for it. I am easliy able to get into a roll. It is however, really annoying if I want to do something like relax and read a book and I have to keep pretending to be evil." Erza smiled.

"I have some books you could read."

And that is the tale of how Jellal ended up reading smut.


	18. Chapter 18

Mira was busy. She just had to do this perfectly, if not she could ruin a ship moment. Before everything had changed, she had written stories, or fanfiction, pairing two characters togthers and creating fluff. Now a fluff moment had presented itself and she just _had_ to make it perfect. See, it was a beautiful winter day and Natsu and Lucy wanted to take a stroll through the forest. The zombies were totally fine with the change of guilds, though several, most notably Guildarts and Laxus wanted to go beat the snot out of Fairy Tail for putting their friends through that.

But operation NaLu was going out on a romantic walk. Mira had learned long ago that real couples were much more fun than merley writing them. So she had prepared the best lunch in the world and wished them both a happy time. Then sat, coiled like a cat, waiting for them to come back. Wendy/Silvia was sitting on a chair nearby, reading intently, whilst a furiously blushing Romeo played with her adorable pink hair. Mira also fully supported RoWen and happily supplied them with hot chocolate and snacks all day long.

The walk was wonderful. A thick carpet of snow crunched underfoot. Lucy was dressed up warmly, Natsu wore what he usually did, claiming that the cold didn't bother him. Well, his hand was warm, so that was a plus. The pine trees were beautiful, magnificent as they streched for the sky, bark such a contrast to the pale sky. The green feather like leaves spred out and brushed their shoulders like comforting fingers. The had found a nice clearing and luck seemed to like them, there was a hollow tree, the floor coated in fallen pine needles, a musty smell but it seemed a nice place, so they left the picnic basket Mira gave them there and had some fun in the snow outside. The snowball fight was vicious, Natsu cackling like a madman and Lucy giggling whenever she hit him. Eventually, they got tired and built a snowman. Things got a little awkward when she confessed that she never built a snowman before.

"Why not?" Natsu asked, clearly confused.

Lucy shuffled her feet and looked at the floor. "My dad never had time, he was always so busy and if he wasn't, he ignored me." she trailed off sadly. Natsu put his arm round her, it was suprisingly warm and it felt nice, she had started to shiver at the mention of her past.

"Don't worry Luce, I can be your family now!" he exclaimed cheerfully. "And the guild too." he added as an afterthought.

She chuckled, blushing a bit. "So sweet!"

So they made the world's best snowman. The guy looked quite cheerful. Okay, _incredibly_ happy, courtesy of Natsu, who had given it a massive grin. They then sat together in the hollow tree and enjoyed the lunch Mira had prepared. They were about to head back when a small _mew!_ caught their attention. Lucy turned when Natsu sprinted to a fallen log, rushing behind him. Lucy's heart melted at what she saw. Four kittens huddled together for warmth in a tiny hole. They were all painfully thin and it had snowed several days ago and there were no marks around the den, meaning that they had been abandoned. Natsu's face softened and he scooped up a blue/grey male. It butted its head into his palm and purred weakly.

Which led to Mira squealing and Wendy and Romeo gently petting the kittens heads. After a large argument, the kittens got names.

The blue/grey one became Happy. For this argument it was pretty much everyone against Laxus, who decided to turn up to see Mira and argued that Happy was a lame name for a cat. He lost by miles to Mira's pleading gaze.

Next was the white cat with the ginger patch on its nose. It was Lucy vs everyone on the name Plue. Sadly, it stuck so that one was dealt with.

Nobody argued about the name Carla. It suited the white cat that had taken a liking to Wendy.

Romeo had been suprisingly quiet until he suggested Pantherlily. No one argued, they were all too tired by that point. Carla went with Silvia and Gold back to Ivory Wings, Lily stayed with the zombies and Happy and Plue soon became the pets of the guild, everyone spoiled them. Riley ended up stealing food and baskets since everyone else forgot.

Zeref sighed, rubbing his temples. The guild had pressured him until he sent the request to ally with the two new guilds. Part of him so badly wanted the leader to be Natsu, anything to see his little brother again, to talk to him, see his smile again. Part of him hoped and hoped that his brother wasn't there, terrified if he had turned into someone who doesn't smile anymore.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT HE'S DELAYED!?" Hades roared. He was beyond mad. First his plans were foiled by Makarov and his troops and secondly, the two half zombies that he had forced to join him were pitifully weak compared to Dragneel. Now, his ally was delayed, by humans none the less. Five annoying humans, two of them realated to the hybrids standing by his side. Fury errupted inside him. Those lousy humans would pay. Oh yes, they would pay. He would find a fitting plan, one that suited the situation perfectly.

 **Oh no! What's he gonna do? Sorry for the short chapter, I needed something like a filler before the main action begins. :P**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hey guys, me again. Hope you enjoy this chapter, we're getting pretty close to the final battle, please R &R! :D:D **

Jackal was looking for Happy and was more that annoyed. He wanted to find the blasted cat and pull of an awesome prank that would keep him laughing for days. For one, he knew the pink dye in his hand wouldn't remain hidden forever and the cat had gone out the one morning he would try to find it. Darn thing. He scowled, lost in thought and nearly tripped over the guy on the floor. He snarled "Hey watch where you..." he trailed of, shocked as he looked down. The man had his eyes closed and his chest was rising and falling rapidly. His leather jacket was torn and his jeans stained. His red hair was spiked and dirty. He was lying in a pool of blood. Jackal turned back to the guild and ran. He burst into the guild, just as everyone started cheering. Natsu let some ashes fall to the ground, smirking. Lucy stomped on them, anger flashing across her face. Jackal had to yell at the top of his lungs to be heard.

"HELP, THERE'S SOME GUY AND HE'S HURT!" he bellowed.

Natsu was suprisingly organized. He sent two runners, one for Wendy and one for Porlyusica, a bad tempered zombie who knew a lot about healing. Needless to say, Mard was again, the only one brave enough to volunteer for that job. Until then, Lucy prepared a bed in the corner of the guild for whoever it was. Natsu stayed at the guild and fetched all the medical equipment. Needless to say there was quite a crowd around the guy. Riley told them all to go and clear the area of zombies if they had so much spare time, so the crowds vanished. Natsu stiffened when he saw the man's face. His eyes went wide with shock and he whispered one word. "Igneel."

When Igneel opened his eyes, Natsu nearly jumped up and down in joy. Then had to restrain himself his old man groaned and sat up. After finding out Igneel's identity the guild had backed off to give them some time to catch up.

"Where the hell am I?" Igneel muttered, looking around and not at the person next to him.

"The Tartaros survivors guild." Natsu said pleasanty.

"N-Natsu!" Igneel choked out upon seeing his son, tears gathering in his eyes. He hugged Natsu close, begining to cry freely, and the moistness on his shoulder told im that the pink haired teen was doing the same.

"I'm sorry Natsu, more than you will ever know but you have to know this. As strange as this sounds some one managed to survive the zombie infection. They've become a zomb-"

"A what?" Natsu asked intently.

Igneel looked suprised, he had forgotten how serious his son could be.

"Something like a hybrid. You wouldn't understand, now-" Igneel was again interrupted by Natsu, only this time the pink haired teen was roaring with laughter. Tears of mirth rolled down his face. At first Igneel was confused, how was this funny, this was _serious_ , the reason he had been gone for so long. Then he saw fangs, gleaming in the light and for a second, wasn't seeing the laughing boy in front of him, rather than the malicious smirk of Acnologia as his claws plunged forward and-

Natsu was shocked out of his laughter as firm hands clutched his shoulders, he turned and looked into the blazing eyes of Igneel.

"What are you?" Igneel asked forcefully, face grim.

Natsu's face fell. His gaze became cold. "I am Natsu Dragneel. Nothing changed when I jumped in front of that zombie to save Luce. I'm still the boy you raised, even if you don't think so." he said, tone dripping with sadness. He turned away so Igneel didn't have to see him cry.

Igneel stared, shocked at the boy in front of him. After dealing with Acnologia for so long, he'd guessed that all people who were stuck in between were like that. He never knew. Everything he'd guessed fell apart as he looked at the person he'd held closest to his heart shake with sobs and try to conceal his sniffles. Something inside him snapped and he hugged Natsu, who stiffned in suprise then relaxed.

"I didn't mean it like that. I'm so, so sorry." Igneel murmured. Natsu nodded, too overcome to speak. They sat in silence fo a while until Igneel finally said "Did you find your brother like I said in my letter?" he asked, voice low.

"Yeah, and for a while it was great. We made a guild called Fairy Tail and everyone there _was_ really nice." he spat bitterly.

"They trusted me enough to send me on a mission to gather information about the surrounding area. There, I met Lucy. I fell in love and we were going back to Fairy Tail." He broke off, smiling slightly as he thought of Lucy. Then the breif joy was swallowed by the shadows that lurked ahead.

"We found Fairy Tail in ruins. A few days later we were being chased and Jet was about to kill Lucy. I couldn't let that happen, not to her. So I did what I do best and got in the way. I woke up like this three days later. With my new powers we found Fairy tail. Some girl called Rosaline pushed Wendy into a crowd of zombies. Then she was like me and Cobra. Then a raid on a shop went wrong, I was kidnapped and Gajeel became like us. I made an agreement with some zombies. Wendy got trained by some guy who came back with us. He turned into a zombie earlier than expected. We had to reveal ourselves in order to protect ourselves. They thanked us by chasing us out."

He sighed, and when he next spoke, his voice trembled "Z-Zeref did no-othing to s-stop it."

Igneel felt his heart go out to the boy, just as it did that day when he saw an orphan shivering in the cold, playing with a match. Neither of them were ever alone again.

"I am never leaving you again." Igneel decided.

Gajeel was woken up by a slight tapping on his arm. Levy's worried face swam into his vision. He groaned and sat up. "Another one?" he muttered. Shrimp mearly nodded worriedly and his scowl darkened. Ever since Natsu, Lucy, Wendy, Romeo and Cobra had been kicked out the had started meetings, trying to determin if anyone else was a half zombie. Needless to say Shrimp worried for him day and night. They would sit in a circle and discuss what happened in the day. They had to say exactly what happened and one thing about their past. Today, Erza and Jellal had a plan that they had not shared with anyone. Levy had a totally different plan, as did Gajeel. Zeref had seemed to act cold whenever Natsu had been mentioned. Gajeel and Gray found him crying in the games room. He insisted that it was nothing then left. In today's circle, they were the last five to go. Well, Erza and Jellal requested to do theirs together. Levy bored them with how she read some book and then said that she had to do six hours of tutoring at school. Gajeel gave the vaugest account possible. Zeref mentioned how that day he gathered supplies and in the past he and Natsu were seperated. Jellal and Erza said that in the past, both their parents had died and they went to the same orphanage. Then it all went to hell. Everyone got a detailed account of where the two ended up kissing, how and all the smut they had read that day. Gajeel covered Levy's ears. Before they seperated to go to sleep, he whispered in her ear. "Safe for another day." She giggled like he had said something really funny for the benefit of the onlookers then whispered back.

"Good, because I'm as sure as hell not losing you!"


	20. Chapter 20

**Oops, I just realised that I should probably do a disclaimer... Okay I don't own Fairy Tail, I never have and never will. I don't own Shadow, Kurei, Riley or Finn. Thanks again for all your Ocs ;)**

Igneel had told them about Acnologia and they of course, told Ivory Wings and the zombies. Which was how they ended up in a war meeting with everyone. They had an awesome battle plan thanks to Lucy and Heart. The two blondes had worked long and hard on the stratergy and it was perfect, not so easy that Hades would guess it but not too complex so they could remember it and it was easily flexible. But there was one issue. One very big issue. They were short on numbers, slightly but it mattered. So, they had one alliance request waiting and it was from the guild they all despised. Fairy Tail. But they had no choice. They argued over who was best at writing and who had the neatest hand writing. It was between Lucy and Seilha. Then they realized that Lucy's handwriting may be recognized so Seliha ended up writing the letter, but smiled at Lucy and promised to lend her a novel when this was all over. Lucy then smiled back, beam lighting up her face. Natsu ruffled her hair, if possible, she smiled brighter.

The crowd shuffled nervously as Zeref read out the letter.

 _Dear Fairy Tail,_

 _In accordance with the letter requesting alliance we have decided to accept your offer, if only temporarily. We are unsure of your skill level and whether you are trustworthy. Therefore if you truly want to ally with us, you must join us on the battlefield. We are planning to attack a large number of zombies in three days time. Meet us outisde the DawnBreak mall at 8am in three days time if you wish to go through with your request. If not then consider us enemies._

 _Tartaros, Ivory Wings._

Zeref grinned,a small smile slowly getting bigger. "They gave us a chance! Come on guys. We have to get ready for this." he exclaimed. The guild cheered. Gajeel sighed in disappointment. The scent on the letter wasn't familliar, it wasn't them after all. Sighing, he turned and grabbed his weapons. It looked like he'd need them. His new friend beside him patted him on the shoulder. Finn was new to the guild but had really lifted the morale. He was constantly making jokes and pulling pranks but he helped Gajeel get over his fear. It turned out he was helping Ivory Wings and knew how to recognize people for what they were. Still he was supportive but the less said about what he did with silly string the better.

Lucy watched in wonder as Natsu and Cobra sparred. Kurei and Riley were watching with her. Kurei, the shy girl had begun to open up more and she quickly became good friends with Lucy. Riley and Lucy had been pretty good friends since they started the guild. Actually, they weren't the only ones watching, but they had the best seats. They watched as Cobra slashed forward, claws swinging in a deadly arc. Natsu ducked under them and retaliated with a fierce kick,foot striking Cobra in the jaw. Then skidded across the grass as he was punched away. He grinned then darted forward, claws flashing in the light. The sound of claws against claws was drowned out by the cheers of the crowd. It was around then that they decided to use their speed. They became blurs, all the eagar crowd could hear were the sounds of battle. Wendy looked a little put out and muttered something under her breath, eyes sad. Over the roar of the crowd she could barley hear what Natsu called. Wendy did and grinned. She waited uptil the two of them stopped, let her join in then resumed. If possible, the cheering of the crowd got even louder and Lucy saw the people start making bets, Seilha writing them all down. Then Shadow and Laxus joined in and Kurei left to go find them some ear plugs. Turned out Igneel was making quite a profit selling them. Which he was using to bet on Natsu.

It seemed that the other four saw Laxus as a threat and ganged up on him. He was thrown out into the crowd, a bloody cut on his face. Makarov and several other people groaned and started paying up. Kurei shreiked when Cobra was sent flying and rushed to help him up. He grumbled a bit but looked pleased none the less. They then sat and watched, Cobra joining them on the best seats. "Natsu or Wendy." he muttered. "He's too strong and she's too fast. One of them." He was then shut up as Shadow went flying into his face. Several people were swearing as they passed up whatever they bet. There was only a blur of pink as the two remaining hybrids battled it out. For whatever reason, they slowed down to normal speeds and the whole crowd could see them kick and claw. They both had big, crazy grins on their faces and with Wendy's hair now pink, they looked like twins. Natsu's smile didn't fade when Wendy punched him in the face with enough force to send him flying. He stopped himself before he could go too far and got straight back up. He charged at Wendy, a sudden burst of speed confusing her. She collapsed and by the time they used they could see what happened. Wendy was squirming on the floor whilst Natsu tickled her. She ended up pleading for him to stop through her laughter. Igneel and Lucy ended up very rich indeed.

The next day, everyone assembled weapons and practised drills of the plan, changing the problems. In the drill, the zombies played Hades' troops, Guildarts acted as Acnologia and the numbers were slightly different but they worked with it. Lucy and Natsu usually ended up the ones fighting Makarov, who played Hades. Since they worked so well together, the plan ended up as a success almost every time.

On the day of the battle, Natsu, Lucy, Cobra and Romeo all wore long cloaks and cursed the fact that they never bothered to change their apperances.

"Old names now guys. END, Ashley, Erik, Silvia and Gold now!" Natsu called out. To make things seem less suspicious, a couple of the other members wore cloaks, so the excuse of hideous scars was believable. Still, they couldn't help the anger that rushed through their veins when they saw the faces of the people who betrayed them. Gajeels small smile did little to help. The guy next to him smiled and jumped up and down. Riley slid up to him and whispered a greeting. Then ended up slapping his arm and telling him to shut up when he carried on talking. Still, there was a certain fondness in her eyes. After all, they were best friends.

Zeref, ever the one for formalities, requested to meet with the two leaders. Lucy stayed with Mard and Wendy. Natsu hoped that his brother couldn't tell how uncomfortable he was, or who he was, for that matter. Heart smiled, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. Zeref didn't notice, he was too busy staring at the cape.

"May I ask why..?" Zeref asked politley.

Natsu dreaded speaking. He couldn't hide his voice but thankfully Mard saved him again.

"Master END suffered some injuries whilst fighting. The wounds covering his mouth have not yet healed. He is wearing the cloak to ensure you are not scared by his apperance." Mard said smoothly. Zeref blinked then nodded. Heart told everyone the plan, carefully leaving out Makarov's zombies but hinting that they may recieve reinforcements. The divided guilds stood as one, ready to face the zombies.

Natsu looked towards the buildings they would attack. _This is it. The final battle. If we win this, we get everything. If we lose, everything will go to hell._


	21. Chapter 21

**hi again. Just before you start reading I have another request to make. Basically can you guys give me some names for the twins ZerVis btw. Thanks ㈴2**

Things actually started okay. Zombies swarmed around them and they all fought. All grudges and anger were drowned out by the harsh but beautiful song of combat. Natsu had charged forward with Lucy and Zeref. He forgot about everything, the divide between them was forgotten. He lunged forward, claws outstreched and easily killed it. Lucy then used her daggers (where had Mira even got them?) to take out the others nearby. Lucy found the swords too hard to master so Mira showed her how to use twin daggers. She turned out to be a natural with them. Fighting together was so familiar that each other's movements felt right, they knew what to do, it all fitted together. Even defending a shocked Zeref as Natsu's hood fell back.

Zeref couldn't move, he was forzen in shock. He should've guessed, should've known but he somehow couldn't accept the idea Natsu belonged anywhere other than Fairy Tail, couldn't smile without them. Only, here he was, respected and happy with a guild at his command. And he was fighting like a monster, blows vicious and accurate. Working so well in a team when before he was always fighting solo before. It seemed that Lucy had changed him, for the better or worse, he couldn't tell. He knew he had to fight, he couldn't stand there forever, he had to help. So he plunged into the fight, careful to stay away from this new Natsu, scared of what he had become.

Everything was going fine. Cobra slashed and tore, Kurei at his side, sharp piece of pipe in her hand twirling and slicing zombies. Her green eyes flashed, anger dancing like a fire. It was going a little too well, so he knew something was up. Maybe that was why he was able to dodge the guy's first attack. When the wall collapsed and a zombie in a green coat, a horrible colour scheme, really an eye sore, with crimson eyes charged, he was able to dart out the way. He signalled for Kurei to run and saw the sorrow pool in her gaze as she moved forwards. He turned to the guy, waiting for the typical bad guy speech.

"I'm Zero, I will cause your death." he boomed. Cobra's only thought was _Well, at least it was quick!_ Before he was fighting for his life. The guy was brutal, using so much force behind his punches, that it took all Cobra had to defend against them. He knew he had to turn the tables soon, or this very well could be his last fight.

Shadow cut through zombies, making quick progress, smirking behind her dirty mask. Riley fought beside her and the pair worked well, claws a blur and switching out so flawlessly that it looked like they had been fighting together all their lives. The eventually got to a large hall, that was brightly lit. Two of the four people looked up in interest. The white haired one with the eyepatch gestured to two humans on the floor. They stood up and their hands turned to claws. "I am Sting."

"And I am Rogue."

"We are the twin dragons."

"And we will be your opponents."

The two men continued to watch as the four began to fight.

Finn realised somewhere in the middle of his battle that Riley had gone on ahead with Shadow to take on Acnologia or whoever. As he fought of another pair of zombies he figured he should probably hurry up and get to them soon. He saw Heart nearby and decided to help her out. She tried to be annoyed when he saved her but she really couldn't hide the relief that flashed across her face when he showed up. "Let me guess, like the idiots they are, Natsu and the others went to ahead to fight the bosses or whatever." she huffed.

"I'm suprised that you didn't include me in that group."

"I hadn't finished. You let them. Moron."

"Whatever, let's just catch up to them."

Wendy's eyes were blurred with tears as she fought her opponent. She had to beat them, they were stopping her, her guild, everyone. Yet it was hard to fight the person you had closest to your heart, even if they were a monster. Even if they wanted you dead.

Romeo watched, feeling his heart prick as he watched Wendy fight. He didn't know who they were but he knew what they meant to Wendy and was willing to take a guess. The zombie was Grandeeney.

Gajeel swore and dodged another blow from Metalicana. When did the old fart even get turned, was he changed by Acnologia? If that was the case then that **CENSORED WORD** was so going down.

Lucy hated her father for all the pain and neglect he had caused. And to top it all off he was now trying to kill her. He wasn't mindless like the others but cold and brutal.

"Is there any reason," she hissed, "as to _why_ you are doing this?"

He laughed, it sounded like twigs snapping andhad no humour. "You were useless in life, you never could have inherited the business, you were too dumb. All you did was insult Layla's memory by looking all pretty. I hated you and I will end you now." he sneered. Lucy saw red. This man claimed to love her mother but then abused and mistreated the daughter she cherished. She hated him more than anything else, not to mention how he fled the zombies, leaving her behind without a word. And she thanked him for it, otherwise she would have never met so many wonderful people, and certainly not _her_ Natsu, who was fighting furiously behind her.

Laxus started laughing when they sent Ivan at him.

"You? Seriously? They had to resort to employing you? How low are their standards here?" Laxus snorted. Ivan snarled and lunged. All he managed was a bleeding gash on Laxus' cheek. Two minutes later and Ivan was disposed of, Laxus stepped forward, fully intent on finding Hades.

Wendy couldn't ask for Romeo's help in the middle of a battle so she hoped that he would just go with it. He didn't but Grandeeney ended up locked in a telephone booth all the same. Wendy hoped that one day, that Grandeeney may be able to think, talk and laugh, like Makarov's zombies. Hadn't she deserved her happy ending yet?

Natsu was explecting many things, a hard battle, Acnologia to turn out to be some movie star (Hey, it could happen) or something worse, like vampires. He was not expecting his father to attack him, or have to deal with zombie Igneel. He felt his heart break but all sadness was washed away by a tide of fury. Someone had planned this. He had seen Lucy getting revenge on her father. Someone thought that it was a good idea to mess with their parents. That someone was going to pay. Igneel lunged and kept on attacking, snarling as Natsu deflected every hit. Natsu didn't know he was crying until he sniffed. "You made me a promise. You're sure as hell not breaking it." Natsu figured that since he was unwilling to kill his father, that when he was knocked out amongst the bodies of the other zombies, he would look like one of crowd. He walked over to Lucy, who was crouched, shivering over her father's body. She looked up at him as he walked over. He grinned at her, offering his hand. "C'mon Luce! One more fight and we're free." She smiled and nodded, taking his hand, they headed of to battle together.


	22. Chapter 22

They met up with Cobra and Kurei, Gajeel and Levy, Laxus and Wendy with Romeo by the doors of the hall. They could hear some people fighting inside. Apparently Acnologia was the worst and should be dealt with first. Just then, a hoard of zombies came charging at them.

"Go deal with Acnologia. We'll deal with this." Riley yelled. Lucy, Kurei and Romeo all nodded in agreement and drew their weapons. The zombie hybrids walked through the doors. What they saw was a suprise. Riley and Shadow appeared to be having trouble. The guys they were fighting were obviously hybrids, as they were a tangle of claws yet all looked human. Shadow saw them,, grinned then kicked the blonde one, who wasn't even the one she was fighting, into a wall. Riley ducked under Rogue's claws and knocked him out with one furious punch. Hades, who they knew to be the one with the eyepatch snarled, face twisting in displeasure and gestured to the other man, who grinned, fangs glinting, eyes blazing with a firey bloodlust. His hands turned to claws and he walked forwards, cackling over the sounds of his footsteps echoing. "Well, well, it looks like there are others like me after all."

Natsu glared, the gesture copied by the other standing by him. Acnologia smirked, streching out his clawed hand. "You could all join me, together we would be unstoppable."

"Us." Hades corrected. "You mean join us."

"Nope!" Acnologia laughed, suddenly vanishing then in one movement, blood sprayed everywhere, falling like tears and surging out in a crimson tide. Hades' head rolled on the floor, mouth slightly open, still in shock.

"Now, where were we?" Acnologia said pleasantly.

Natsu snarled. "How were you able to do that?"

Acnologia roared with laughter. "Kid, I'm telling you nothing until you join me."

Riley sneered. "Good, we didn't need to know that badly anyway."

Cobra grinned and gave him the finger, Natsu and Wendy ended up laughing and a small smile appeaed on Laxus' face. Shadow copied Cobra. The group ended up laughing. Acnologia interrupted them again.

"Do you all intend on fighting me?"

"Hell yes!"

"And none of you will change sides to even out the numbers?"

"Why would we even think about it?" Natsu and Riley yelled at him.

Acnologia shot the group a grin that sent shivers crawling up their spines. He walked over to Hades' corpse and reached into his pocket. There, he pulled out a diamond but it looked odd, like one side was dark and the other light.

"This is Nirvana, it's what Hades used to control his zombies. Even now they are waking up, confused and retreating. It clearly doesn't work as well on us half humans so I can't control all of you. However, some of you will be more than enough." He grinned and held up the diamond as it started to glow. The mutants blinked and covered their eyes. When the light cleared, the tides had changed dramatically.

Across them stood Acnologia, Gajeel, Wendy and Shadow. At first the three hybrds looked a confused, eyes glazed. Acnologia swore and tapped the diamond, causing another, smaller flash. Then was when things started to go really wrong. The hybrids on Acnologia's side started to grin, eyes becoming bright and dangerous. Their hands turned to claws and the atmosphere became heavy. Acnologia threw back his head and laughed, cackles bouncing around the walls.

"Ha, looks like your friends are on my side now. They're going to defeat you and force you to join me. They aren't on your side anymore."

Riley snarled, her temper long gone and rushed at him, only to be stopped by Shadow, who curled a claw and punched her away. She wasn't holding back, meaning that the gem had really worked. As though the attack had been some kind of signal the rest of the two groups rushed forward, for the first time not holding anything back.

Cobra winced, trying not to scream when Wendy's claws tore into his leg. She could really pack a punch. He kicked her away, watching as the wall dented where she hit it. She was still smiling when she got up but he noticed the gem in Acnologia's pocket flash, glow cutting through the fabric. He used to laugh whenever he watched horror movies and the bad guy's eyes would be red. Now wasn't the case, when that gem flashed, here eyes turned crimson and her movements became violent, expression stiff with anger. He knew he had to end this. But then she struck, using that special speed of hers. Her claws slashed through his side and he crumpled, the wound wasn't serious as he would heal but he was knocked out. Before his vision faded, he was horrifed to see the smirk that crossed the face of the girl who he called his sister.

Riley's side stung whenever she moved, the punch had really taken her breath away. She was still furious, temper simmering. Acnologia had done some thing truly horrible. And she hoped to hell and back that Natsu was going to make him pay. Her brief second of thinking cost her a gash on the face. Again, she felt her temper snap and decided to use her full power. She felt energy flood her muscles and her claws instincivly spread out. Shadow seemed to become angry, but Riley never saw Nirvana so she just thought that her opponent was getting ready to attack again. Her vision seemed to sharpen. She lunged and realized that Shadow's eyes were crimson. She couldn't remember the fight afterwards. She could distantly recall that their blows were evenly matched until she swooped down and grabbed piece of rubble and used it to knock Shadow out.

Gajeel had been a pain to defeat. Laxus was fairy sure that he'd feel those bruises a month from now. He had, none the less gone down after a long and difficult battle. He now lay on the floor, face slack and he was tied up, just in case when he woke up he was still under Nirvana's influence. He glanced around just in time to see Riley scream and fall and Wendy standing over her, grinning nastily. She looked up at Laxus and her smile widened. He didn't expect her to speak, he thought they were mindless puppets.

"You know you're going to lose. Lord Acnologia will defeat Natsu Dragneel and you will end up joining us." her voice was low and threatening, not hers at all. Laxus then said the smartest thing he had ever said in his entire life.

"Wait. Aren't you being controlled?"

She laughed. "Yes, I am in a way. You see, Nirvana is really meant for zombies but it doesn't really work on hybrids as well, so it can't control large amounts of us, over a long period of time it will be able to have total control over us, if we are affected long enough." She appeared to have the villian's habit of monologing too.

"But since I am the only one left, the full power is forced onto me. To me it is like I've been on King Acnologia's side all along, it doesn't feel like control at all. I am more than ready to fight for him. Flies like you will join us eventually."

"Yup, definatley mind control." Laxus stated. The events had clearly taken their toll on Wendy as well. The fight was over soon. Wendy charged and Laxus brought his fist down. She collapsed, but just in time for Laxus to see her eyes turn brown and pool with tears. Needless to say, when Lucy and her group finally got through the doors, they were more than confused to see Laxus sitting with a medical kit and treating two knocked out people and three tied up and knocked out people.

 **(A/N back to when Nirvana was first activated, Wendy's POV thing, since we don't really get bad guy POVS here -.-)**

When the gem flashed Wendy's mind went blank. When it flashed a second time, thoughts began to connect in her head. Those people dared stop them. They were being dumb. She must eliminate them. Then emotions shot through her and she grinned, eyes lighting up. This was going to be fun. She saw Shadow move to stop one. Aww... she was taking all the fun. The one with the brown hair came charging at her. Oh dear, this really wasn't going to end well for him. The fight was fun, joy shooting through her veins, she didn't know why but it swept her along. Then Gajeel collapsed and sudden anger overtook her. She couldn't even fight it and she took down Cobra easily. She smirked, Lord Acnologia would be so pleased. Then Shadow fell down and everything went wrong. Tons of images and thoughts poured into her head until everything screamed at her to help Acnologia. Hatred for the other hybrids, respect for Acnologia, everything was clashing around. Somehow, one tiny little thought wormed its way around. _This isn't right..._ But it was crushed. She hardly knew what she was saying, she wanted so badly to help Acnologia. Then cursed herself for calling him 'Lord' when he was so clearly King. Then Laxus dared to accuse her of being mind controlled. She charged and at that last second, everything shattered. She felt so light, clean of all the voices and desires that weren't hers. Before she was plunged into a sea of regrets, sorrow closing in over her head.

When she opened her eyes, she was confronted by a sea of concerned faces. Romeo crushed in a hug. "Wendy, you're okay!" he beamed. Wendy felt guilt churn in her stomach, she couldn't remember most of what she was thinking beyond the pain she hadn't noticed until she was free of it. But she got the sense of it, she had hurt them and didn't deserve their sympathy or friendship. Their kind looks seemed to burn her. "I'm sorry." she said, looking away so they didn't see her eyes fill with tears.

"Don't worry, you were being controlled kid." Laxus said gruffly.

"It probably hurt you Wendy." Cobra said gentley, and Kurei gave her a small smile. They both stung, why were they being so nice, she was the reason he was lying there injured. All she had to do was tell them the truth and they'd forgive any grudge they would have held. So she lied. "It didn't hurt."

"Yeah right runt, I was under its effects when it was split betweeen us and it felt like hell. Don't even try lying." Gajeel interupted. Something inside her broke and she ended up sobbing everything into Romeo's shirt. It seemed that he, Laxus, Cobra and Gajeel heard something through the scrambled mess. Four darkened gazes glared upwards. "Natsu... You better give him hell." Cobra muttered.

As if on cue, the building shook, hinting ominously that a fight was going on above.

"Oh Natsu," Lucy whispered, horrified "what have you got yourself into?"

 **I really didn't mean to end it here... I wanted it to carry on but it was getting too long. Sorry guys, cya next time.**


	23. Chapter 23

**This is just after Nirvana suddenly stopped. :P Thanks to my friends who helped me get over my brief writers block. (You know who you are) Also good news, I've started pre-writing another story since the next chapter will be he last. Kind of sad now I think about it...**

"Oww! That hurt my foot." Natsu complained, hoping his childish act would fool Acnologia into pausing. In the back of his mind a plan began to form, something using the height to his advantage.

"That. Was. My. Trump. Card." Acnologia snarled, eyes flashing. "Nirvana was going to make you guys into my army."

"MY FRIENDS, your army, not four words that go together." Natsu yelled. Acnologia ignored him. "I am going to make you suffer. I will break you until you're a shell of your former self. And I know how to start. I am going to kill that Lucy you care so much about."

Any plans that had been half formed in his head were burnt away by the rage that swept like a wildfire through his head. "How do _you_ know about her?" he snarled.

"Easy. We have spies of our own. I am going to make her beg for mercy, while you are watching powerless."

Natsu finally gave in and submitted to the simmering inferno that was his anger. Acnologia caught the fist thrown at him and grinned savegly. "Finally getting serious. Maybe I'll give her corpse to you as an early christmas present."

Natsu attacked head on, claws striking at any unprotected flesh. His blows were chaotic but precise, somehow unpredictable and well aimed. Natsu's onyx eyes shone with rage and gave no clue as to where he would attack next. Acnologia loved every second of it, the wild destruction around them was so refreshing. Energy flooded through the evil hybrid as he looked at the damage they had done. This boy would be an excellent puppet, the ways he could be used. But Acnologia didn't want to end this fight. It was too much fun. Another flurry of blows cut of his stream of thoughts. Acnologia matched each one with his own.

Natsu was sent flying towards a wall after a nasty punch from Acnologia, then used the wall to propell himself back with frightening force. Acnologia snarled then turned back, darting back towards where they came from.

Lucy was talking to Kurei and Heart, as she had arrived just a little earlier with Finn, about what the people outside must be doing when the doors to the stairs burst open and Acnologia was suddenly looming over her, bleeding in several places, eyes wild and blood thirsty. Suddenly he was tackled out of the way by a pink blur and the two became a snarling mess in the corner of the room, movements too fast to see, but the echoes of the fierce blows exchanged were loud and clear. The group stared, eyes wide with horror.

"What just happened?" whispered Kurei, face pale and shocked.

"Acnologia obviously said something to Natsu, probably about Lucy considering he just tried to kill her. Now Natsu's really mad and the two are fighting." Cobra summed up, eyes flicking back and forth as he tried to keep track of what was going on. He winced as one of the figures went flying and was instantly attacked by the other. Then there was a loud, gruesome noise and blood splattered the floor. There was a howl of pain, then the sounds of combat carried on. For a while, they couldn't keep track of anything that was happening. They heard Acnologia yell something then Natsu let loose a cry of rage. Then Acnologia was sent flying, skidding along the floor and didn't get back up.

Natsu stood, breathing heavily, bleeding from various gashes. His legs crumpled and he fell forwards. Lucy let out a shrill cry and rushed forward, catching him before he hit the ground and cradling his head in her lap. Wendy rushed forward, medical kit at the ready. The rest of the group gathered around them, anxious expressions almost identical. Weakly, his eyelids fluttered open and his shaking hand held Lucy's pale hand close. "Y-You're okay, right?" he asked, worry choking his voice.

"Yeah." Lucy breathed gently, playing with his hair with her free hand. The moving moment was interrupted when the doors burst open and true to Levy's caculation, pretty much everyone from all three guilds came pouring in.

Zeref looked at Hades' corpse, still oozing blood and a pretty nasty sight, he looked at the group. "Did you do this?" he asked, voice trembling.

"Not us. Him." Gajeel muttered, pointing at the body of Acnologia.

Zeref groaned. "I'm guessing by the wounds on you that all of you took him down?"

That was when half the hybrids looked guilty, the other half gave them sympathetic looks. Cobra put his hand on Wendy's head. "It wasn't your fault, don't beat yourself up over it." he said sadly. Kurei put her hand on Wendy's shoulder. Shadow was pulled into a hug from Riley, Laxus did the unthinkable and gave Gajeel a small smile.

"What happened?" Heart's small voice filled the room, which had fallen silent. Levy finally replied. "Acnologia used some kind of zombie control device called Nirvana to control half of the hybrids."

"So that's what it was. That darned thing hurt my foot." Natsu complained quietly. Lucy giggled and Gajeel stared at him. "YOU BROKE A DIAMOND WITH YOUR FOOT."

Natsu attempted to shrug and failed due to the many bandages covering him. "Well yeah. He got kind of mad afterwards though..." and trailed off. Then something broke, a torrent of questions flooded over them, so fast and so thick that not one person had any hope of answering.

"Wait, so you're all hybrids?"

"Natsu is E.N.D?"

"Who is that guy without a head?"

"Who's Acnologia?"

"Something can control zombies?"

And many, many more. Laxus, who people persumed was with one of the guilds finally got sick of it and bellowed.

"ALL RIGHT, FINE! We'll answer them JUST ONE AT A TIME!" No one said Mira was dating him for keeping his temper.

Erza and Jellal finally organized some kind of system to ask the questions.

"Natsu, were you E.N.D all along?"

Natsu glared at the group, his guild and Ivory Wings had spread out behind him and considering how the gesture was mimicked by all of them, the overall effect was certainly threatening to say the least.

"Yes. We didn't want anything to do with Fairy Tail until we realised we were short on numbers."

"So you used us?"

"Well yeah. You were the ones that wanted an allience. And drove us out so none of us really cared."

"Moving on! So are you monsters?" The silence that responded was only broken by the sound of Mard Geer sharpening his knife.

"HELL NO!" The entirety of the two guilds roared at once. Fairy Tail flinched back.

"Nothing changed when we came back from being zombies." Wendy spat.

The next question was very popular with the Fairy Tail survivors guild.

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because we knew you'd drive us out!" Natsu and Cobra roared. Riley made a rude hand gesture to back up their point. Lucy grinned then did the same. To this, the guilty guild had nothing to say.

"So what now?" Zeref asked finally, voice quiet.

Natsu offered him a small smile, not his usual blinding grin, but it was a start. "We see where the future takes us."


	24. Chapter 24

**Here we go guys, this is the last chapter of my story. I don't actually plan on doing a sequel but if you guys really want one then I'll try. I certainly didn't think that so many people would take the time to read it, let alone follow and fav it. Thank you all so much, I hope I can give you a good enough ending!**

The future brought them to some very strange places indeed. Igneel and the other people who kept Acnologia at bay eventually recovered and joined Makarov's zombies. The hatred between the two guilds and Fairy Tail eventually faded away and Zeref got to see his brother's smile again. A lot of other things happened too.

"Nashi Dragneel, get back here, I want a rematch!" yelled two angry voices.

"What, so I can beat you again, fat chance!" the pink haired girl bellowed over her shoulder. She ignored Norman and Silver's yells of rage as she darted behind Natsu, who was talking to Zeref. Mavis sat with Lucy and Kurei, watching in amusment as the children squabbled. Kurei had her hands folded over her swollen stomach and Mavis was reading a book, while her now grown up daughter peeked over her shoulder in a worried manor and would occasionally point out and hurriedly explain what was going on at a certain point. Lucy was holding Luke, her son close, while he sucked happily at his baby bottle. Somehow Finn had diverted a disaster by putting on a puppet show of all things. The children shared looks of wonder as he made a comical tale of stuffed animals come to life.

The whole group cheered as Shadow and Riley jumped through the entrance, grinning.

"Nailed it!" called Riley, her eyes shining. Shadow nodded, usual smirk half hidden by her new mask. Still, it didn't take long for her new mask to look exactly like her old one. With all the missions the grown ups took to rid the world of zombies. Okay, Natsu, Gray and Gajeel still made a contest but what else was new? Well, a lot of things.

Shadow and Riley were swarmed by the children, who wanted to hear all about the exciting mission that they had just completed. Natsu finished his conversation with Zeref and walked over to Lucy, they both smiled and hugged.

"Sorry Lucy, I gotta go on a mission in a bit." Natsu apologised softly.

"Nah, that's fine." Lucy said stretching. "Who are you going with."

"Wendy."

"Cool, bring me back a zombie head or something."

"Sure, but WHY?"

Lucy face palmed. "It was a joke."

"Oh. Okay."

4 Days later.

"NATSU I SAID IT WAS A JOKE! GET RID OF THE HEAD RIGHT NOW!"

"You do realise that I'll just put it in Gray's bed or something."

"Get. Rid. Of. It."

That evening:

"NATSU!" Gray roared "WHERE IS THAT PUNK?"

Romeo was giggling and pointed to the note that was pinned to one of the many christmas decorations Finn had decided to hand everywhere. He probably had the help of Riley and Shadow for the high ones and Kurei's help with the photo copying for the lame santa jokes taped everywhere.

 _Hey Ice Princess,_

 _Lucy and I have gone outside for a while. Follow us if you want._

 _-Natsu_

"I AM GOING TO KILL THAT ^*&£%^% LATER!" Gray bellowed. He turned as he was tapped on the shoulder, seeing Kurei and Erza standing there with nearly identical expressions.

"Not if we doin't kill you first for using such language around the children." Kurei growled darkly. Erza's eyes gleamed as she sharpened her sword. Gray may or may not have run away screaming. Maybe not so much had changed after all.

Nashi punched Silver on the arm and angrily gestured for him to be quiet. He glared at her but did so, gripping the curling iron tightly in his fist. Nashi listened then nodded. The pair crept forward.

An hour later Gajeel blinked awake then wondered why everyone was trying not to laugh at him. He exploded whn he finally found a mirrior. "I'll get those kids back!" he roared. The guild finally stopped trying to hold in their laughter at the sight of Gajeel's normally unruly and wild hair curled and dotted with flowers. He didn't find the ink moustache funny either.

"We are so dead." Whispered Silver Fullbuster.

"Shut up, you'll give us away." Nashi hissed.

A new generation was born, one day this world would become theirs. Their parents weren't too worried yet, they intended to stay around for a long time. They would face whatever was thrown at them, they were a family.

 **A/N really short chapter, I'm sorry... But I found the ending quite sweet since the rest of the story was rather dark... Anyways, my new story will probably be up tomorrow.**


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N Hi, me again! I know this story was supposed to be finished but I had this small idea that I really wanted to write so there'll probably be another few chapters now and if you like it then I'll carry on with something like this.**

The children couldn't find a way to sugar coat this. Their parents would kill them either way, it was their own fault that they got in this mess. See, Shadow, Riley, Natsu, Gajeel, pretty much all the adults went on all of these awesome missions and adventures and needless to say the next generation were spell bound and wanted their own fun.

Running from a hoard of slow, stinking zombies wasn't how they imagined their 'mission'. Seriously, the creatures reeked, the stench burned their noses as the children ran for their lives.

"Darn, we messed up!" Silver yelled.

"Shut up and run." Nashi snapped.

The children that had disobeyed their parents direct orders were none other than Nashi Dragneel, Silver Fullbuster, Norman and Keli Redfox, Gillian Dryer and Simon Fernades. They were all running from a hoard of about twenty zombies. They had killed ten of them before they were overwhelmed.

Keli was limping slightly and much to Norman's annoyance, had grabbed Simon's hand so she could keep up. Nashi was at the front of the crowd of children, leading the way, looking remarkably like her father as she navigated the maze of streets. Silver brought up the rear, constantly checking how far behind the zombies were. The people in the middle put their trust in the others, showing that despite all the fights and pranks, the deep bonds of their friendship was a force to be reckoned with.

Nashi's legs were burning with the effort of running. She had been sheltered from reality up until now and none of them realized that the zombies were so dangerous. Their parents had killed them with ease but they must have had practice. Didn't they have to live like this and get used to it, or else they'd become one of these horrible creatures? She cursed herself and almost cried when she saw the dead end. _It can't end here, not like this!_ She cried within her mind.

They were oblivious to the two figures on the roof, watching them.

One of them looked at them then asked. "Do you think that it's them?" he asked.

"Positive." the other comfirmed.

"Well then," he never finished his sentence as the two jumped.

Nashi looked up as two figures dropped from a roof. The one with black hair turned and yelled at the group of terrified children. "Go. Down the alley behind you. Go straight until you find the house with the roses in the front garden. We'll hold them off. GO!"

Terrified the children obeyed, they found the house and cowered inside, flinching at the sight of blood covering the walls.

"Let's never do something like this again." Silver stated.

"Y-Yeah." Nashi agreed.

"I think we can all agree on that." Simon said, voice still slightly shrill.

They waited in silence for the return of their saviours.

The two men burst into the house after what seemed like hours. What they did not expect was for the children to chorus: "Thank you for saving us!"

Then attack them with a flurry of questions.

"What are your names?"

"Who are you?"

"How did you save us?"

"Do you know how we can get back home?"

"Woah, woah." the one with the blonde hair laughed. "How about I answer them all in one go."

"Okay!" the kids yelled.

"Right. My name is Sting and this is my, uh, brother Rogue. We're just strangers who used to be a part of a guild."

The kids nodded, having heard about survivors guilds.

"Anyways, we saved you because we owe your parents. A lot." Sting admitted. The kids shared a confused look but before they could ask, Sting carried on.

"As to how we saved you... We used this."

The children screamed and backed away as Sting's hands turned into the claws that had been hunting them.

"W-What kind of monster are you?" Keli stammered.

At this the easy grin dropped of Sting's face and he looked at the children in shock. "So they didn't tell you then. Nevermind this, we can promise you that we won't kill you or whatever, if we wanted you dead then we wouldn't have killed the zombies. We'll just get you back to your parents."

"Then run for the hills." Rogue muttered.

The children shared looks of defeat, they really didn't have any other choice. "Fine." Norman muttered, scowling.

"But the second you try to kill us, I have a knife and I'm not afraid to use it." Silver snapped.

"Good enough for me!" Sting said cheerfully.

"It's getting late, we should get to the safe house." Rogue reminded him.

"Oh yeah, follow us!"

Natsu's day did not start off as badly as it ended up. He had stayed over at the Fairy Tail building and had had a nice long chat with Igneel. After not seeing his father for a while it was refreshing. There was the downside of him mentioning that he had to tell Nashi about everything soon. It's not that he liked keeping things hidden from her but was it so wrong that he didn't want her to be scared of him?

Then he rushed home, knowing the route off by heart after so many trips between the places. What he saw when he arrived back at their base shattered his heart. Lucy was crying. He sprinted over, completley caught off gaurd by her next words.

"The kids, t-they're g-gone!" She wailed.

"What?" Natsu breathed.

"They snuck out at one point. They probably wanted to slay zombies." Riley said flatly. "We missed them somehow.

"Natsu, what are you doing?" Lucy asked, watching his hands turn to claws.

"I'm going to find our kids."


	26. Chapter 26

In the end, four people went to go search for the children. Natsu, Gray, Gajeel and Lucy. Levy and Juvia had also wanted to go but eventually decided that it would probably be better to wait at the base in case the children came back.

Lucy and Gray scrambled to get their weapons while Gajeel and Natsu talked in low voices.

"Ready?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah." The other three comfirmed.

They raced out into the streets, and looked around. "Can you guys do your thing?" Gray asked.

"Well, what were you planning on doing if we didn't track them by scent?" Gajeel snorted.

"Good question." Gray muttered.

Silver shivered underneath the thin blanket. Sting and Rogue probably didn't think that they'd have visitors in their safe place so resources, such as food and blankets, were limited but they had to make do with it. Dinner had been something from a can and it tasted admittably horrible but he didn't complain since they were clearly trying to be nice. As for what they were... Silver had no idea what they meant by that. Also, why did they owe their parents. Thinking back he had heard something about a big battle, with his father mentioning an alliance. Still, they were either lying or there was something their parents hadn't told them yet. Silver shrugged, staring at the ceiling, perhaps there was a good reason for it. Despite how many thoughts flitted about in his head, his tiredness overcame him and he slipped into a dreamless sleep.

Nashi couldn't sleep. This had nothing to do with the hard floor and torn blanket. Not even to do with the emptiness of her stomach as she had given half her share of her food to Keli, who hadn't had breakfast that day. Worries swam in her mind. She stiffled a sob as she looked down at her hands, or rather, claws. She didn't even know how she got them, only that she had been so scared about all the dangers of this new world and suddenly she looked down and her hands were claws. She was slightly glad at least the others were asleep and didn't see her like this. Memories of their hushed conversation earlier came flying back to her.

 _"Can we really trust these guys?"_

 _"No, we can't! They're monsters, did you see their claws?"_

 _"Yeah, they're scary... But we can't survive on our own out here so we have no other choice."_

 _"But Simon, they're part zombie, they might eat us!"_

 _"Whatever. We'll just ditch them as soon as we can!"_

 _"Good idea!"_

She... She was just like Sting and Rogue. _Monster!_ Silver's voice rang out in her head. _Part zombie!_ Yelled Norman's voice.

 _Would they... Would they be scared of me too?_ Nashi thought in terror.

 _Monster!_

 _Monster!_

 _Monster!_

If they thought like that about Sting and Rogue then it was obvious that they'd think she was like them. Panic was begining to take over, she couldn't stay here, what if they found out? That couldn't happen. Nashi made up her mind. Being as quiet as she could, she tiptoed out the doors and into the night, the bitter air embracing her as she began to run. She had always been fast and silently thanked whoever was up there. _I'm sorry, but I can't let you see me like this..._

They carried on searching in the night. Nothing was going to stop them from finding them. Lucy bumped into Natsu when he stopped dead. He closed his eyes and turned to Gajeel.

"Does this scent belong to those guys?"

"Sting and Rogue, yeah."

"Who are they?" Gray asked them, tone worried.

"Zombie hybrids who helped Acnologia. Shadow and Riley got rid of them."

Gray then said something very rude. Lucy started to panic but Natsu placed a firm hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll get there soon enough."

Lucy looked him in the eye. "Run." She ordered.

"But that means we'd have to leave Gajeel and Gray behind." he protested.

Lucy turned her glare on the two of them. "Don't worry, I can think of a way around that..." she trailed of menacingly.

Sting and Rogue woke them up. The children gathered round and had their share of breakfast, still too tired to notice who was missing.

"Hey guys, where's the pink haired girl gone?" Sting asked them.

The children looked around in panic. "Nashi's gone!" They wailed.

"What was her last name?" Rogue asked, appearing to have just had a bad thought.

"Dragneel." Simon stated, staring at the man.

"We're dead." Sting sighed. Rogue nodded.

"I could try to-" Sting was cut off as the doors burst open and a pink blur tackled into him.

"Thought so." Natsu snarled. "What funny buisness are you guys up to?"

"You better not still be pals with Acnologia." Lucy said darkly.

"Or do we need to remind you of what happened last time you decided to fight us?" Gajeel spat.

Gray had rushed over to the children, checking they were safe. Then yelled out. "They're all safe, except for Nashi."

"Wait! They helped us!" Keli stammered.

Natsu appeared to have got angrier at the news of Nashi's dissaperance. Lucy seemed to be furious but she wasn't as good as hiding her emotions and there was a glimmer of fear in her eyes.

"You have thirty seconds to explain yourself." Natsu growled.


	27. Chapter 27

Sting eventually explained. It took a little longer that thirty seconds.

"Why would you owe us?" Gray asked.

"Hades forced us to serve him. When you got rid of him we finally got freedom." Rogue explained.

"Oh, that actually makes a lot of sense." Natsu said.

"Erm, what are they talking about?" Gillian asked warily.

"We'll tell you everything when we get back home. Promise." Gajeel groaned.

"Answer me one more thing." Natsu demanded, voice dangerous again. "Where is Nashi?"

Lucy glowered at Sting while Rogue explained. "We honestly have no idea. We were about to track her when you guys arrived."

"And attacked us." Sting grumbled.

"Still not sorry." Natsu muttered. "Look, you guys head back home, Luce and I will go find Nashi."

"But-"

Another deadly glare from Lucy silenced the protests. She turned to Natsu and nodded and they raced out the building.

"You." Gray growled on the way home. "Are in _so_ much trouble."

"Sorry!" Silver squeaked. Gajeel was busy scolding the others. The rest of the children looked terrified.

"What did those guys tell you?" Gajeel grunted when he was done yelling.

"Just that they owed you and-" the group shuddered. "Some really scary claws."

They watched curiously as Gajeel silently walked into a house. Then cringed at the loud sound of things being broken.

"Dude, you know you could have just told them." Gray reasoned.

"Yeah, well. None of us were ready." Gajeel muttered.

"Show us what?" Simon asked suspiciously.

Gajeel waved a hand as they turned into claws. "This."

The children watched, shocked.

"How that happened is an entirely different story that will have to wait until you get home."

The kids groaned.

Nashi was hiding. There were zombies could smell their stench from behind the cluster of reeking bins. The combined odours made her want to gag but she didn't dare make a sound. Her hands were still claws no matter what she tried.

Natsu was confused. "Her scent ends here." he told Lucy.

She looked around. Other than the zombies that they had just killed, the street was empty.

"Wait, why does it end here, can't you track her to a more specific location?" she asked, confused since he had done this several times before.

"No, the awful smell of the bins overpowers everything around here." he complained. Lucy walked over to the bins, wrinkling her nose. She noticed how they were arranged, almost like someone small could hide. Narrowing her eyes she started to move the bins away. She was soon helped by Natsu, who either realised what she was doing or heard the almost silent whimper.

Nashi cowered away from them with her eyes closed.

"Nashi?" Lucy asked gentley. She turned to Natsu to see why he wasn't talking. He was staring in horror at Nashi's hands. Lucy followed his gaze to see the claws.

Nashi had watched this and let out another quiet whimper. Natsu turned to look at her and quickly hugged her.

"Don't worry. This isn't your fault. It's mine." he assured her sadly. She sniffed at looked at him.

"W-What do you mean?" she cried.

"You got them from me." he admitted, showing her his claws.

"What? How?" she asked.

"I was infected when I jumped in front of a zombie to save Luce. I woke up like this three days later."

"But I'm a monster..." Nashi mumbled.

"No, you're not. Trust me. I thought exactly the same thing when I was alone."

 _Natsu..._ Lucy thought with a mix of sadness and suspicion. _What exactly went on in those three days?_

"Promise I'm not a monster?" Nashi asked hesitantly.

"I promise." Lucy butted in.

"Me too, you're not a monster Nashi." Natsu said softly.

"I don't understand!" Nashi wailed.

"Then we'll explain."

They told Nashi everything. She seemed to understand most of it but needed it explaining.

"Why did you kill Acnologia?" She asked.

"He threatened everything I held dear. And said some other stuff about some people, killed a load of people and controlled some of our friends."

"So he was a murderer?"

"Yes. Pretty much." Nastu summed up.

"What do you mean by controlled and who did he control?" Nashi asked curiously.

"He used a gem called Nirvana to bring Gajeel, Shadow and Wendy over to his side. Laxus, Riley and Cobra had to fight them. I believe that Laxus defeated Gajeel, Riley eventually knocked out Shadow. Wendy defeated Cobra, then Riley but in the end Laxus won."

"Wow, is Wendy really that scary?"

"Yes." Lucy muttered, remembering when she offered to fight with Wendy for practice.

"Hey Nashi?"

"Yes Dad?"

"There's someone you need to meet."

"Who?" she asked, blinking curiously.

"My dad, Igneel."


	28. Chapter 28

**Well, after this Trying to Survive will be completed again so I hope you all enjoyed these extra few chapters. Disclaimer, I don't own Fairy tail. :D**

Igneel hadn't been told about the kids going missing. Or that Nashi had been told everything. So having visitors was a complete suprise for him. He spent the next hour catching up with his granddaughter. It turned out that Nashi had inherited Natsu's zombie powers and his sense of humour. Thankfully Igneel shared this trait and the two laughed at all the all the pranks that had been pulled on Silver Fullbuster. He also gave her some ideas for future pranks. They actually got on really well and Nashi was sad that she hadn't met him earlier.

At least now she understood why her parents didn't tell was a lot to take in and scary. Still, she was slowly getting used to it and felt a lot better, especially when Natsu showed her how to get rid of her claws.

Natsu glared at Makarov. "You want to _train_ her?" He spat.

"She's too young!" Lucy protested.

"Nashi is 10 years old. It won't be hard training. You can watch if you want. Besides, she needs to be able to protect herself if something like this ever happens again."

"Fine, but we'll be watching."

Cana was the one who started training Nashi. This was for two reasons. The first being that Cana was a good teacher and unlikely to push her too far. Secondly Guildarts would not be impressed if Natsu were to attack his daughter because Nashi got hurt while training. So this arrangement went on for a couple of weeks until Nashi could dodge and do some attacks. She learnt really fast and was soon moving on to training by tracking things by smell. She was finding this much harder since she wasn't used to using her senses in such a way. Natsu and Lucy took it in turns to go back to the guild and check on the others and reassure them that Nashi was very much alive but couldn't come back because she was training to defend herself, which made the other children clamour to be trained as well. Natsu excused himself and later heard that Finn was the one who had to deal with them.

Requested by Nashi herself the other children didn't know she was a hybrid. She inisted on it even when Natsu told her what happened when he tried to keep what he was a secret. This incident also caused every hybrid parent to carefully watch their children.

Gillian joined Nashi two weeks into her training. She seemed pretty sad until Laxus talked to her. Guildarts seemed to be a bit more pale whenever they saw him. It may be the stress of possibly having to fight four very powerful people.

Mira, Laxus, Natsu and Lucy all watched the training sessions. Gajeel and Levy watched their own children closely and to their suprise, Keil, the shy bookworm was the one who inherited Gajeel's power, not the subborn fighter Norman. The three girls trained hard, assuring their parents that they were fine. Six months later they decided to go back to the guild, promising to come back.

Nashi had her heart in her mouth when they pushed open the doors. She was admittably scared that the others would be all suspicious or have all these new jokes and secrets to giggle about behind her back. A small squeeze to her hand dragged her back to reality and she saw Keli and Gillian smile at her. Nashi gave a small grin. If they others were like that, then she had two friends that she could laugh with.

"Nashi!" Silver cried gleefully, rushing up and wrapping her in a crushing hug. "You're back!" he beamed.

"Yeah, I'm home." She mumbled.

Silver coughed and awkardly broke away. "Well, I could totally destroy you in a fight now!"

"Dream on, moron."

The rest of the group, who were busy welcoming back the others (Norman hit Simon after he hugged Keli to welcome her back) turned and grinned at them "Yay, we're all back together again!" They yelled ecstatically.

They found out about her powers about a month later. They were on an offical mission accompanied by Cobra and Wendy. It was simple had been sightings of a group of zombies and it was up to them to deal with it. They were doing really well until Nashi's knife was sent flying. Everyone had been so friendly when they came back and she had trained so hard with her claws that she forgot that they didn't know. Besides, Wendy and Cobra were using their claws so she didn't see the issue. Upon seeing Nashi using her best weapon, Keli shrugged and decided to do the same. Gillian smirked and then it somehow became a contest as to who could kill the most zombies.

The mission finished and Nashi realised that her friends didn't know. Silver glared at her.

"And exactly when did you plan on telling us you were a hybrid?"

Nashi laughed nervously. "Later."

"Jeez, why didn't you tell us earlier?" he snapped.

"I-I was afraid that you'd think that I was like Sting and Rogue." she mumbled.

Their's wasn't the only drama unfolding. Simon was questioning Keli for her to start crying over how nice he was being and the two hugged, sniffing, while Norman glared at them. Gillian was happily talking to Wendy while Cobra smirked, looking at the children. _Everything eventually works out..._ he thought with a small smile. Then he started thinking about Kurei and his smile grew in size.

Small troubles like this would always crop up, but they'd get past them. They always did.


End file.
